


With All My Might

by Stessa



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Universe, Character Study, F/F, Family Drama, Gen, Magic, Romance, Sisters, Slow Build, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2019-01-04 09:24:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 55,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12166113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stessa/pseuds/Stessa
Summary: Six-year-old Wynonna Earp finds a baby in the woods and immediately feels a strange connection to it. Years in the future, 27-year-old Wynonna Earp has just sent away her child for its own protection.orA story that head-canons Waverly as Doc and Wynonna's daughter Alice. There's time-travel, spells, Wayhaught and of course lots of drinking!





	1. Chapter One

_**September 8th 1995** _

Willa and their daddy were busy, shooting cans and bottles out by the fence, and their mamma was somewhere in town, doing God knows what, probably the shopping or maybe drinking beer with Gus at Shorty’s, or maybe she just didn’t want to see her seven-year-old learn how to use a gun – at least that was what she’d said, before she’d taken their beat-up truck and driven straight into their already crooked mailbox before speeding down the gravel road.

Wynonna wasn’t sure why her mamma was so mad at their daddy for that thing about the gun, because they all knew that Willa was supposed to learn to shoot it eventually.

The sooner the better, as their daddy had argued.

And Willa. Willa, she had grabbed Peacemaker from Daddy’s hand and told Mamma that she was gonna be the next Earp heir, and she needed to learn. As Michelle Earp had cursed her husband’s ancestors and grabbed the car keys from the countertop, Wynonna had slipped barefooted into her blue rubber boots and ran outside to watch the car speed away.

Now, she was tiptoeing along the northern border of their land – Willa and Ward were in the other end, by the southern border, right near the barn, she could hear Ward’s curses as Willa learned how to pull the trigger – and she was trying not to be too bummed about the fact that Ward had told her to get lost when she went to watch them practise.

Daddy had told her to go paint a picture, play with her teddy, simply just stay out of the way. But Wynonna wasn’t good at staying out of the way, she never had been. She wasn’t good at sitting still either, which was why she’d snuck out through the kitchen door to go explore, even if she knew that she wasn’t supposed to.

Momma always called her a firecracker, not that Wynonna was entirely too sure what it meant.

Wynonna kicked a rock across the invisible border of their land – it had always been invisible, never drawn with a fence or bushes, yet both Earp girls knew exactly where it was, their father had made sure of that. They weren’t allowed to cross the border, he’d said, when Wynonna was barely able to wobble on her two tiny legs, because red eyes were looming just on the other side, in the outskirts of the forest, and they were there, always, ready to grab them and go. That’s what he’d said.

Willa and Wynonna were ever really only supposed to leave the homestead with one of their parents, Aunt Gus or Uncle Curtis, heck even Shorty was okay. Willa had been in school for a year, and Wynonna had just started, so the grown-ups in their lives took turns driving them there. Already, Wynonna hated school; of course, there was the sitting still-part which she couldn’t muster there either, but there were also the other kids, making fun of them because of their name and their daddy and the fact that he told everybody that demons were real. Wynonna didn’t give a rat’s ass about that though, she didn’t need them stupid other kids, she was an Earp, and she could take care of herself.

And she and Willa, they had each other; they were best friends, they were sisters. And Wynonna would only ever need Willa by her side, not anyone else.

Mamma always said they were thick as thieves. (Wynonna didn’t know what that meant either).

One of Wynonna's braids fell over her shoulder when she reached down to grab a rock off the dusty ground. It was September, and it was already starting to get colder in Purgatory, yet there she was, in her blue rubber boots and nightgown with just a jacket thrown over her shoulders. Her mother would have chastised her, told her to at least wear some pantyhose, even though she knew Wynonna hated them and would rather feel cold.

She felt the rock in her hand, testing its weight, before she threw it across the border, using all of her strength and aiming at the nothingness at the edge of the forest. She thought she saw movement over there, someone – or heck even something – looming in the shadow right by the edge. Watching her, watching the rock as it landed a mere few feet from the first line of trees.

Wynonna was, even at the tender age of six, very aware of the fact that there was an actual danger towards her and Willa outside of the homestead. She knew this, she had experienced it a few times already, even in her short life. Once when she was four, she and Willa had been playing with their kites in the backyard and one of them had gotten stuck in a tree outside the border. They had told their mamma, but they had been too impatient to wait for her to help retrieve it, so they’d gone across the border, and before they even knew it, a scary man with red eyes had grabbed Willa, thrown her across his shoulder and was trying to leave with her.

Their daddy had come storming out of the house with a bottle in one hand and Peacemaker in the other. He’d shot the guy, and before Wynonna knew what was happening, the ground had swallowed him in a rage of fire.

She’d been so scared that night; Mamma had tucked her in with sweet songs and tender kisses, and told her that everything was going to be okay. But from the age of four, Wynonna knew that their lives were never going to be okay because they were Earps. And Earps had a job to do.

It was getting darker now, but she hadn’t heard the familiar rumble of the truck coming up the long driveway. She didn’t want to go back yet, not before Mamma was back. She’d just be stuck in the house while Willa learned how to shoot and had fun with Daddy.

 _Wynonna_.

She thought she heard someone calling her name from the woods and turned to look towards the trees that loomed with shadows that kept getting longer and longer.

 _Wynonna_.

There it was again, and it didn’t just sound like anybody – it sounded like Mamma. What was Mamma doing in the woods, and why hadn’t she come back with the truck yet? Wynonna took a testing step; placing one foot over the invisible border while turning her head to look across her shoulder. She knew she was doing something that she was not supposed to, and if Ward saw her, he’d give her an earful and send her straight to bed without supper.

 _Wynonna_.

She was sure now. Someone was definitely calling her name, and it sounded a lot like her mamma. Her braids whipped across her shoulders when she turned around and placed the other foot across the border as well.

She held her breath.

She wasn’t sure what she thought was going to happen, but this was definitely not it. Six-year-old Wynonna Earp was confused, because even after all the stories her daddy had told her, even after experiencing it herself, seeing it with her own two eyes, nothing happened when she crossed the border and left the Earp homestead.

She heard her name come from the woods again; it was soft, delicate, like a whisper across the empty field. She didn’t know why her mamma would be calling her from across the field, from the scary, dark woods, but she knew that if her mamma called, she’d always come running.

So, six-year-old Wynonna Earp didn’t think twice about it; maybe it was because she was a firecracker, and firecrackers probably didn’t think twice (she still wasn’t sure if that was for certain or not), but she took off running towards the woods, almost slipping in her blue rubber boots which were a little too big because they were actually Willa’s. She felt the wind in her face, catching her hair and her jacket, making it feel like a cape on her back, and she came to a halt, stopping, a little bit winded and out of breath, right near the first line of trees.

She could feel her heart beat wildly in her chest, and she held her breath, trying to listen to her mamma’s voice again, wanting to find her between the trees, to see what she wanted, why she’d called her name.

But Wynonna couldn’t hear the soft sound of her mother’s voice. She could only hear the wind rustling the leaves, the sounds of small animals crawling across the ground. The distant sound of gunfire.

Suddenly, a small whimper broke the otherwise almost eerie silence, and Wynonna felt her heart speed up again. That sound was not something mother Nature would usually make, it was not even something Wynonna’s human mother would make. Wynonna hadn’t been around many babies in her life, but of this she was certain: The sound was coming from an infant.

Tentatively stepping further into the forest, very aware that she was entering dangerous territory, Wynonna peeked around a particularly thick set of bushes. She thought the whimpers were getting louder, and as she looked around, her eyes trying to adjust to the way everything was just a little bit darker inside the woods, she saw a small bundle, wrapped in blue, sitting atop an old tree trunk.

A baby.

Holding her breath, Wynonna carefully stepped closer. She wasn’t sure what to do, all she knew was that small babies weren’t supposed to lie on top of tree trunks in the woods at this time of day. Especially not in towns like Purgatory where ad things tended to happen. She slowly reached a shaking hand out, not wanting to startle the baby, and brushed the blue fabric to the side.

The baby immediately stopped whimpering, and big, round, green eyes stared up at her, suddenly alert, surprised even, by the face staring down at them.

Swallowing loudly, Wynonna brushed a finger across the baby’s cheek. “Hello,” she whispered, voice cracking. “What are you doing out here by yourself?”

Whimpers started erupting from the baby again, and Wynonna looked around, trying to figure out if there was somebody nearby – anyone, a person who owned this baby. She felt watched, like somebody was looking at them just in the periphery of her vision. But she didn’t see any red dots lurking at her, and there was silent – so, so silent. Except from the baby’s whimpers which were now growing stronger.

Wynonna turned her attention back to the bundle in front of her. She didn’t know what to do, she was confused – why would anybody leave a baby outside in the woods? She blew on a piece of hair that was dangling in front of her eyes and made a decision: With shaking arms she struggled to pick the baby up, careful not to drop it. It felt cold in her arms, even wrapped inside the blue blanket, so she tucked it beneath her jacket and struggled to zip it just a little bit. Her heart beat faster than she could ever remember it to have done before, and she locked her blue eyes to the green eyes staring up at her and bent her head to press a kiss to the tiny forehead. A wasp of blonde hair, barely there, tickled her nose as she whispered, “There, there. You’re okay. I’ve got you now.”

Wynonna felt something scratchy on her cheek and tucked her fingers into the blanket, right next to the baby’s left ear, and she paused when she came into contact with parchment. Pulling, the six-year-old realised that she was standing with a white envelope in her hand. She felt her eyes go wide and spun around herself, just checking one more time if there was anybody around. “Hallo?” She tentatively called out, but there was no answer. “Anybody here?” She continued to question, this time raising her voice, even if it was scary. She didn’t know why she was doing it though, because she could just feel it – feel that there was no one there who would announce their presence, and that she was all alone with this tiny baby who felt a little bit too cold, a little bit too heavy, in her arms.

Blue eyes fell back to the envelope, and Wynonna struggled to turn it over while still carrying the baby’s weight. Her eyes turned wide when she read over the one word scribbled across the front.

**_Wynonna_ **

The handwriting felt oddly familiar, yet Wynonna couldn’t place it. She couldn’t even read, just her own name, and Willa’s and a few other choice words, but she was certain. Her name was written across this envelope, and the envelope was tucked inside the baby’s blanket.

“I was supposed to find you,” she whispered, as her eyes fell back to the small human in her arms.

The baby blew a small bubble of spit in reply.

Clenching her jaw, Wynonna made a decision; even at six years old, she was more determined than most, and she swept the envelope into the pocket of her jacket, zipping it for good measure, before she clutched the bundle closer to her chest and made her way back through the bushes and into the open field.

She had no idea what this was all about, she even had no idea what her parents were going to say when she suddenly came back with a tiny baby in her arms, but she didn’t care. She hadn’t read the letter tucked inside that envelope, and she wasn’t going to read it before she had learned enough to do it by herself, because if Wynonna knew anything, it was that when something was addressed to you, with your name – and only your name – written across the front, you were supposed to read it by yourself. She wasn’t going to show Willa or Daddy, perhaps only just her mamma if need be, because someone had written a note, especially and specifically for her, and then they’d left if with that baby inside of those woods. She had to make sure what was inside that letter though.

Carefully making her way through the open field, towards the border where Wynonna knew she was supposed to take this tiny human – to be safe, to be taken care of – she felt an odd kinship with the baby in her arms. She could feel a lump forming in her throat as the thought of losing this baby entered her mind. She wasn’t going to let that happen, she wasn’t going to let her parents take it away, send it off somewhere, to someone else, because this baby was meant to be with her, and she was supposed to take care of it. She could just feel it. Staring down at those green eyes, Wynonna knew that she could never leave this tiny person without her protection, and she felt her heart swell – with love, with pride even – because she was gonna watch over this little baby like a big sister and make sure that no one ever did it harm.

“Maybe I’m going to have to show Mamma that letter,” she whispered to the baby, before pressing another kiss to its forehead.

She could still hear gunshots coming from the other side of the house as she crossed the border, and she made a sigh of relief; from the fact that she was safely on Earp land or from the fact that Ward and Willa were otherwise engaged, Wynonna didn’t know, but she staggered toward the house and through the back door, before falling onto the floor in the kitchen, legs bent and with the baby cradled in front of her.

She draped her jacket over them both and leaned her head back against the wall. She suddenly felt so, so tired. All she wanted to do was close her eyes, for just a second, and maybe everything would be okay when she opened them again. But Wynonna couldn’t sleep, not really, not with the baby in her lap and the sound of gunshots coming from outside.

She heard her daddy cheer Willa on, and Wynonna started humming to the baby in her lap to calm its whimpers, while she stuck a hand into the pocket of her jacket and retrieved the letter. She used her teeth – her humming stopping briefly – to open the envelope, and saw a handwritten letter fall to the floor. The baby was still whimpering, and Wynonna could not make out any of the words inside that letter except her own name – both the first and the last – and she grabbed the paper, fisting it tightly, as she closed her eyes once more, fighting to stay awake.

“It’s gonna be okay,” she whispered to the baby, stroking its little cheek, “it’s gonna be quite alright. I’ve got you now. Mamma’s gonna be home soon, and she’ll figure it all out.”

She wasn’t sure how long she sat there, battling sleep, humming to the baby in her arms, but she smiled to herself when she heard the familiar sound of the family’s truck stopping outside, the roar of the engine cutting off. She could hear Ward holler something at his wife, before another gunshot went off, and she pressed yet another kiss to the baby’s forehead, smiling, knowing that her mamma was going to take care of everything in just a minute. Her mamma always did.

The door to the kitchen slammed close and Wynonna heard, more than saw, her mother coming to a halt. She dropped two filled grocery bags to the floor.

“Wynonna?”

Wynonna stared up at her mother, the beautifulest woman she had ever known, and held the fist with the letter out for her to take. “I found it in the woods, Mamma. It has my name on it. I think I was s‘posed to find it.”

Michelle Earp grabbed the letter from her daughter’s hand, and if she was confused or worried about an unknown baby in her kitchen, she didn’t show it. Wynonna just watched as her mother read the letter, her eyes moving left to right, her forehead crinkling as she went.

She sighed. “You left the homestead?”

Wynonna made a face, “I know I’m not s’posed to, but I heard you calling my name.”

Michelle kneeled down in front of her daughter, brushing the blue fabric away from the baby’s face. “You are not supposed to, no. But you were supposed to find her.”

Licking her lip, Wynonna’s eyes locked with her mother’s. “It’s a girl?”

“Yes,” Michelle replied, nodding her head softly, “a little girl. Not very old from the looks of it.”

Wynonna felt her forehead crinkle. “What are we s’posed to do with her? You can’t take her away, I won’t allow it!”

Michelle smiled down at her, “I ain’t gonna take her away, sweetheart. You’re supposed to take care of her, it says so in this letter.” She squeezed the paper tight and crumbled it inside her fist. “It’s a big responsibility, Wynonna, are you sure you’re up for it? Watching over her?”

Jutting out her chin, Wynonna replied, “Sure am.”

“Good,” her mother whispered, brushing a piece of Wynonna’s loose hair out of her face, “because you’re gonna be her big sister, okay? And if there comes a time when I’m not around to take care of you anymore, you’re gonna watch out for her, okay? She’s gonna be the baby in the family, and she’s gonna need you.”

Wynonna felt pride swell in her chest, and she knew for certain that she was always going to take care of her baby sister. She wouldn’t, ever, let anyone hurt her, and if, when her baby sister grew up, other kids would call her names and make fun of her, just like they did with Willa and herself, Wynonna would stand up for her, because that’s what big sisters do.

Michelle carefully stuffed the crumbled up letter into the pocket of Wynonna’s jacket. “Hide this somewhere, Wynonna, a place only you know how to find. Your daddy ain’t gonna like this, sweetheart, another baby, another mouth to feed.” She sighed, taking the baby from Wynonna’s arms, pressing a kiss to her forehead and tugging her close. “We’re going to tell Willa and your daddy that we just brought her home from the hospital, okay? That’s what we’re going to say.”

Wynonna had never seen her mother look so serious before. “The hospital?” She whispered.

“Yes, darling,” Michelle replied softly, “nothing about the woods or the letter, okay? That’s just for you and me to know, not even for the baby, you understand?”

Nodding, Wynonna felt the crumbled piece of paper in her pocket, already making up places in her head where she could hide it; places that not even Willa would find it. Maybe beneath the loose floorboard in her bedroom, or the hollow trunk in their backyard. Maybe even in the barn, she was pretty sure there was some loose boards in the ceiling that Willa didn’t know about.

Michelle bent down and pressed a kiss to Wynonna’s hair. “She doesn’t have a name, darling, the letter didn’t say so.” She looked down at the baby in her arms, the newest family member, her third daughter, before staring at her middle child. “You know what I think? I think we should name her Welcome, because we’re going to make sure that she feels good with us, right? That she knows she’s a part of our family as much as you and Willa,” she nods to herself, “that she’s… she’s your sister. My daughter.” She paused, “And it starts with a W.”

Wynonna wrinkled her nose. Welcome Earp? That wasn’t a name for the tiny baby tucked safely in her mother’s arms. It wasn’t a name at all. She stared at her mother, “Nope,” she said then, “can’t name her that. That’s not special enough.”

Michelle locked eyes with Wynonna as she softly proposed another question, “Well, what do you think then?”

Standing on her tiptoes, Wynonna looked down at her baby sister, her angel, and knew exactly what her name was. “Waverly,” she whispered, glancing briefly up at her mother’s face for approval, before once more locking her eyes to the tiny nose, the littlest pink lips, and those big green eyes, “her name. It’s Waverly.”


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter we're back in 2017; Waverly is concerned about Wynonna's well-being, but at the same time she just also really wants to get Nicole out of her clothes. And Wynonna's being, well, Wynonna.

September 2017 

It was like everything was going too fast around them, yet time still seemed to be moving in slow-motion for her, for all of them, Waverly felt, as she tried to gather her thoughts enough to actually understand a word of what she was trying to read for her research. Papers, books, notes – they were all scattered around her bedroom floor, and she chewed on the end of her pencil, trying to focus, but her mind kept wandering. 

It was proving to be very difficult, simply because she kept worrying about her sister, and though she knew the research was important if she should ever stop worrying about her sister, but the worry kept pushing everything else out of her brain, because Wynonna had thrown herself into figuring out this thing about Bulshar, and also driving only God knows where on her motorcycle for hours on end, and therefore Waverly kept thinking about her sister, worrying, because she – more than anyone else – could see that Wynonna’s heart was breaking. 

It made sense of course, of course Wynonna’s heart was breaking. She’d just sent her child, beautiful, tiny Alice Michelle Earp, away from the Ghost River Triangle in a helicopter with a man they barely knew. Of course, Waverly reminded herself, you were just about to marry him in an alternate universe, so we know he’s a good guy. But that didn’t change the fact that they’d sent Alice away, to be with Gus somewhere safe, and they didn’t know when they were going to see her again. 

If. If they were going to see her again, Waverly mentally corrected herself, which just made her worry grown even stronger. 

Doc was handling it all remarkably well. Waverly wasn’t sure what it was the he knew, or if it was because he wasn’t ever really ready to be a father (though she found that hard to believe, because like he had promised, he was all in), but he was handling it – in his own Doc-ish way. Spending time with Wynonna, spending time with Jeremy in the basement of Shorty’s, trying to keep himself busy now that Rosita wasn’t around anymore. Doc was being Doc, and he had seen Alice, right before they’d sent her off, which was what they had all deemed very important, even in the midst of shit hitting the fan. 

(Waverly still wasn’t really sure how she felt about the fact that Rosita had turned on them like that, because she had been such a good friend to her. Waverly couldn’t believe that Rosita was a bad person, she simply just couldn’t, because just like Rosita had said that she liked Waverly, Waverly liked Rosita as well. And that had absolutely nothing to do with the kiss they shared. Nothing). 

A kiss that, thankfully, Nicole had been cooler about than Waverly could have imagined to ever be if the roles had been reversed. Maybe it was because Waverly had been honest, and Nicole valued honesty so much, or maybe it was the fact that so much other shit kept happening right after, that one tiny kiss in a time of confusion didn’t matter much. Or maybe it was simply the fact that their trip into an alternate universe (Waverly still felt incredibly guilty about that and the problems she’d caused) had solidified what she’d known since meeting Nicole that day in Shorty’s, which felt like forever ago: That she and Nicole were meant to be together, at any time, in any universe, always. 

Dolls and Nicole had both thrown themselves into researching and investigating Bulshar, trying to figure out what was happening, and Jeremy was trying to help them best he could, and Waverly wanted to do that too, and she tried whenever she could, but there was also Wynonna to think about, and Wynonna was Waverly’s top priority right now; taking care of her, making sure that she took care of herself, because for Waverly there was nothing more important than Wynonna at the moment. 

“Baby?” 

Looking up from her bed where she’d been trying to read – keyword; trying – Waverly found her incredibly beautiful girlfriend leaning against the doorway into her room. “Hey you,” she whispered as she snapped her book shut, placed it on the floor and padded the mattress next to her. 

Nicole closed the door behind her and crept across the floor, carefully sidestepping all of Waverly’s research; she was still wearing her uniform, looking amazing as ever in her vest and the cap that complimented her ridiculously gorgeous face so well. “What are you doing?” She breathed as she fell down on the mattress and greeted Waverly with a kiss on the lips. 

Waverly fisted her shirt to keep her from backing away. “You?” She sheepishly questioned, locking her eyes with those above her; pressing another kiss to her girlfriend’s lips and breathing in the scent that was so Nicole. Vanilla dipped donuts. Her own personal favourite. She tried not to think too much about it, especially after everything else that had happened, but she had come so close to losing this beautiful woman above her, and honestly, she wasn’t sure she would have been able to ever be truly happy again if she had to go on without Nicole. And that, that was as scary as the thought of facing Bulshar or Bobo del Rey. 

Nicole’s eyes shone as she shook her head, “You’re impossible,” she whispered, pressing more kisses to Waverly’s lips and letting her hands travel above clothes. “I missed you today. Work’s been pretty tough, and Nedley’s trying out this new schedule which will have me working the graveyard shift two weekends a month,” she started to tell, while Waverly did her best to listen to what she was saying, “and Dolls and I have really been trying to figure everything out, but it’s just do damn tough to focus when I’m missing you like I was today.” 

“Hm?” Waverly wasn’t entirely able to focus – something about a graveyard, Nedley’s schedule and a doll – because her girlfriend’s hand was tickling her bare midriff and sending tingles all the way down to her toes. 

“Waves,” Nicole grinned, only too aware of what she was doing to her girlfriend, “I’m trying to talk to you about my day.” 

Waverly pulled her face closer again, eyes cloudy and her desire to get her girlfriend out of the uniform was almost intolerable. “How ‘bout you stop talking, huh?” She whispered, pressing her lips to Nicole’s once more, inviting her impossibly closer. Her hands fell from the vest, only to push it off Nicole’s shoulders, before she let her fingers tangle in red hair and sighed happily into her mouth. 

Nicole deepened their kiss, letting her fingers travel across Waverly’s stomach and up her body, while she pressed herself closer to the smaller girl, thigh nudged between her legs, and desire spreading throughout her like wildfire. 

Waverly loved the feel of Nicole all over her; it was the most relaxing, comforting, safe space she could ever be, and at the same time it was the most tantalising, mind-blowing, intimate sex she had ever experienced. It was kind of amazing to find both in one and the same person – something that Waverly had never thought she’d be able to find, least of all thought she had deserved. 

Maybe it was because she was an Earp and Earps had always been told that they were trouble, not worth the dirt on the ground, or maybe it was because her father always used to tell her that she was no good, an afterthought, and those kinds of things stuck with a person – even after she found out that she couldn’t possibly be an afterthought, because she wasn’t her daddy’s kid, perhaps not even her mamma’s? Waverly knew that Wynonna had said that she clearly remembered their parents bringing her home from the hospital, but as Waverly had come to learn the past year, things weren’t always like they seemed. There was witchcraft, demons, alternate universes, so who was to say that Wynonna’s memories were true? Maybe they had been altered, maybe they had been changed. Or maybe they really did bring Waverly home from the hospital, but that still didn’t mean that she was biologically theirs. 

Or even entirely human at all. 

At least Peacemaker didn’t think she was; it had burned her fingers – just slightly – but it had burned her nonetheless. But it had also let her shoot it. 

She’d decided to put a pin in that for now though. 

“Hey,” Waverly was pulled out of her train of thoughts by Nicole breaking away from their kiss, “where did you go?” 

Closing her eyes, Waverly sighed and pressed her forehead against Nicole’s collarbone, “I’m sorry,” she whispered, “there’s just so many things in my head, and I really just wanted to kiss my girlfriend.” 

Nicole chuckled, Waverly could feel her trying to hold it back, but she was entirely unsuccessful. “Not that I mind the kissing, but maybe we should talk then, eh?” She suggested. 

Waverly pulled back, staring into her girlfriend’s eyes, “I just wanted to have my wicked way with you,” she said, all too seriously. 

This time, Nicole let out a full-blown belly laugh. “Sure, you did,” she replied softly, bashfully lowering her eyes in almost shyness. Her lashes brushed across fair skin, and Waverly’s thumb brushed over the tiny beauty mark beneath her eye. 

The tiny brunette couldn’t hold back her laugh either, and even if this wasn’t the clumsy, not-quite-getting-out-of-their-clothes sex that she’d imagined, it did the trick. She felt lighter instantly, something not many people would have been able to accomplish so quickly. Only Nicole, really. 

Smacking the door open, Wynonna entered the bedroom with a hand over her eyes and a bottle of whiskey in the other, startling the couple apart. “Tell me you’re wearing clothes this time!” She all but yelled, while blindly stepping into the bedroom and trampling all over Waverly’s research on the floor. 

Nicole breathed out deeply, “Yes Wynonna, you can look,” she said, and Waverly watched as her older sister dropped her hands from her eyes and suspiciously gave them a once-over. 

“You were about to get the hanky-panky on in here with my baby-sister, weren’t you, Haughtpants?” 

Waverly immediately missed the full body contact when Nicole rolled off of her to sit by the foot of the bed. “Sure Wyn, as you can see, we were this close to having sex,” she sighed at her sister, holding her thumb and pointer finger out to illustrate her point. “The door was closed though, sis,” she added, for good measure. 

Wynonna rolled her eyes and waved the whiskey around, “I didn’t see any knickers on the door, I thought we talked about this,” she argued, rolled her eyes and took a long swig of the bottle. “I don’t wanna catch you with your head between Nicole’s legs again, so please do feel free to use those knickers I gave you.” 

Nicole’s eyes went wide, and she looked at the ceiling, no doubt remembering the unfortunate incident where a very pregnant Wynonna had caught them on the couch; Nicole sprawled out, buck-naked, with an equally naked Waverly kneeling on the floor, head buried between Nicole’s thighs while she ate her out, and the redhead had a firm grip on a chunk of her hair. She had been this close to an orgasm, breathing Waverly’s name repeatedly, when Wynonna crashed into the homestead, two hours earlier than anticipated, and ruined it. 

Waverly remembered it clearly, because she had never seen Nicole that particular shade of red before. It had practically matched her hair. 

(And Wynonna had bought a pair of horrendous knickers two days after just to make a show out of it when she presented them to Nicole in the middle of Shorty’s). 

“Let’s not talk about this again,” Waverly quickly brushed her sister off, eyeing her girlfriend who – even if she had gotten way better and handling Wynonna’s sarcasm and off-hand comments – still wasn’t so good when it came to teasing about their sex life. “Please,” she added for good measure. 

Wynonna scoffed, “Use the damn knickers, Waverly.” 

Nicole cleared her throat and stood up from the bed, “So, I’m gonna head back out,” she said, pointing a thumb backwards over her shoulder, to illustrate her point. She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Waverly’s lips, “I’ll call you later, how about that, baby?” 

“Mh,” Waverly whispered, slightly out of breath even just from a little kiss. “Love you, baby,” she added, because she was still getting used to the taste of those words on her tongue. She knew she had taken her time actually saying those words aloud to Nicole, even when the redhead had said them many times, and Nicole – she’d been so patient, like she always was with Waverly. It was just strange for Waverly to actually say those words and not fear rejection and heartache. Now, whenever she said them, flutters started in her heart and a goofy smile appeared on her face. 

Wynonna huffed. 

“Love you too, Waves,” Nicole replied, before she grabbed her vest from the floor and headed out of the room. Waverly could tell that her girlfriend was not getting tired of hearing those words casually sent her way in the most relaxed way possible. 

The two sisters stared at each other wordlessly; Waverly on the bed, and Wynonna standing on the floor, until they heard the door smack close and the sound of Nicole’s cruiser driving away. Waverly didn’t want to break the silence between them, assuming that Wynonna had wanted something since she had felt the need to parade in there and interrupt their make-out session. She did have a tendency to do that, sometimes just for the kick of it, but Waverly wasn’t going to be the first to break their unofficial staring contest. 

Oh, except she so totally was, because Wynonna could stare forever. 

“So,” she said, sitting up and tucking her legs beneath herself, “did you want anything, sis?” 

Wynonna groaned and fell down on the floor in front of the bed. She popped her legs up, resting her back against the side of the bed, and Waverly gingerly reached a hand forward and brushed it through her wild curls. She kept trying to figure out how she could best be there for Wynonna right now, because on one hand she wanted to continue to apologise for the mess she had made of everything, and on the other hand she wanted to talk to her sister about her feelings, about Alice, but at the same time she could tell that all Wynonna really did was throw herself into work, and maybe, Waverly realised, the best she could do was just be there. 

Leaning into Waverly’s touch, Wynonna finally opened her mouth to speak, “You’re the best thing in my life, you know that, don’t you?” She questioned. Her voice was low and breathy and for the first time, Waverly could tell that she’d been drinking quite a bit more than just that whiskey she was holdning. As if reading Waverly’s thoughts, Wynonna took another sip of her bottle. “Like, right now, you’re the best thing that I have with me. I,” she cut herself off, “I feel so empty, Waverly, with Alice gone, but at the same time, I just,” she paused, turning her head to meet Waverly’s green eyes, “I really, really, really just am so happy that I have you with me. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” 

“Wyn,” Waverly whispered, leaning down to press a kiss to the older woman’s cheek, “you won’t ever have to find out. Like I said that day at Shorty’s, you’re the best of us, too.” 

Wynonna closed her eyes for a second, clearly trying to figure out the right words to use, and Waverly let her take her time, didn’t want to rush her, because words had never been her sister’s strong suit. “You’re gonna be so mad at me,” she finally said, not daring to open her eyes. 

Biting her lip, Waverly huffed. She had no idea what that was even supposed to mean, but if Wynonna said she was going to be mad, she was probably right, and Wynonna had done something stupid as always. But now wasn’t the time to talk about that stupidness, or whatever mistakes, because all Waverly really wanted to talk about was Wynonna. “Then we can be mad at each other, okay? I deserve it, too,” she simply just replied, smiling when her sister finally opened her eyes and green met blue. 

“I remember looking down at you when you were just a baby,” Wynonna said then, brushing a finger out to touch Waverly’s hand. “I looked at your green eyes, and I held your hand,” she tugged her finger inside Waverly’s hand, “like this,” she paused. “And I remember thinking you were the most amazing thing in this entire world. And I thought, I thought that…” she swallowed loudly, and again Waverly let her take her time to find the right words, “that… I would do the same with her, y’know? Stand there and look down at the baby that I made, and, and instead of Willa standing next to me, it’d be you, and you would hold my baby, like I held you, and just,” she stopped talking, letting the words hang between them. 

Waverly could feel her heart swell; she’d imagined all that for them as well. She’d meant what she had said to Wynonna in the beginning of the pregnancy: It was their baby, and she would have been there every step of the way. She had even imagined her and Nicole babysitting together to give Wynonna some time to herself, and even – one day – giving her niece or nephew a cousin to play with and have a friendship with; someone to live through the pain of being an Earp with. She had seen all of that for them, even if the timing was fucked, and their life possibly, not really, fitted the life that a baby needed. They would have made it work; they would have taken turns watching over her, making sure that she was safe. 

Now she was safe, of course, but also so, so far away. 

“That’s how it should have been, ‘Nonna,” Waverly replied, squeezing her sister’s finger like she imagined at baby would. 

“But this place ain’t no place for a baby.” Wynonna coolly replied, retrieving her finger and kicking a foot out to touch the stack of papers on the floor. “How’s the research going? I mean, besides your research on Nicole Haught’s body I saw earlier.” 

Rolling her eyes, Waverly knew that Wynonna was trying to change the subject before it got too emotional for her to handle. “I’m acing that research, just so you know,” she jokingly said, before she reached down to the floor and grabbed the book she had been trying to read earlier. “I’m trying to find a meaning to that ring though, and it’s not going so well, it’s just,” she winced, “dead-ends.” 

Nodding, Wynonna didn’t reply. She took another long sip of her whiskey and winced when she swallowed. 

“So, what have you and Doc been up to?” Waverly questioned instead, wanting both to know how Doc was doing, but also if they were okay, and if they were, what they had been spending their days doing. She grabbed the bottle from Wynonna’s hand and let the burning liquor slide down her throat. 

Wynonna glanced at her through heavy eyelids. “Don’t know much about Doc, he’s been… off doing his own things, being all Doc-like,” she explained and motioned for Waverly to give her back the bottle. 

The younger Earp took another swig of it first. “He’s not hanging out with the revenants, is he?” 

“I get a feeling this is definitely not revenant-business.” Wynonna replied, letting her head roll back on the mattress to stare up at the ceiling. 

Waverly got a feeling that Wynonna was pretty much done talking, but she tried her luck anyway. “News from Gus?” She questioned, trying not to sound too hopeful, knowing very well that communication between them had to be scarce because it could all be intercepted, and the revenants might not be able to leave the Ghost River Triangle, but other demonic beings could, and Bobo had always had friends in a lot of high places. 

“Nope,” Wynonna just replied, popping the ‘p’ and emptying the last of the whiskey down her throat. She sighed, “And what about you, baby girl? Any idea where your distinctively not Earpy ways are coming from?” 

Sticking her tongue out at her sister, Waverly said, “Hey, I’ve been told I’m the Earpiest Earp of them all.” 

Wynonna raised an eyebrow. “That’s not something to be proud of, you know.” 

Waverly softly replied back, “I think it is. You’re something to be proud of, Wyn.” 

They looked at each other for a moment, and Waverly knew that Wynonna meant her words in the best way possible; that she thought that it was a good thing that Waverly was not an Earp, that she was better than them, more special and meant for something bigger, but Waverly had spent her whole life wanting to be just like her sisters (well, mostly Wynonna) and wanting to make the Earp name proud, to break the curse. And damnit, if she wasn’t related to Wynonna, she was still an Earp, because in her eyes, an Earp was the best thing to be. 

That didn’t mean she didn’t want to find out who she was – what she was. 

Clearing her throat, Wynonna prodded her on, “Well?” 

“I’m actually thinking of asking Greta,” Waverly whispered, not quite wanting to meet her sister’s eyes. “I know it went super bad the last time, but she also helped us, you know, when you were gone,” she whispered the last part, “and uh, I was starting to wonder if there maybe was a spell or something, anything to make you so clearly remember me coming home from the hospital,” she paused, meeting Wynonna’s eyes, testing her reaction to these thoughts. “I mean, someone might have altered your memories, even Willa’s, and… and I know that Greta and Mattie’s mom was The Blacksmith before, so yeah, Greta might remember something?” 

Wynonna nodded her head, and Waverly was thankful that she wasn’t objecting to this idea or trying to talk Waverly out of it, of going to Greta, because it was honestly the best option she felt that she had – it was clear that she could not trust a word Bobo had been telling her (well except for the fact that she wasn’t an Earp perhaps?), so maybe it was better to get her information elsewhere, and Greta was… Greta seemed eager to help make up for the mayhem she had inadvertently helped Waverly cause. It wasn’t a perfect plan, and there might not come anything out of it, but Waverly was honestly out of options at this point. 

“Just take me with, okay?” Wynonna broke Waverly’s thoughts, reaching a hand out to tangle their fingers together, “When you talk to her, eh? Just take me with.” 

Waverly felt her heart speed up in her chest; she knew that she hadn’t allowed Wynonna to develop much interest in this project, since she had taken so long to actually share her doubts about her heritage with her, but now she couldn’t imagine going down this road without her sister by her side. Both her sister, and Nicole, of course. The two best people in the world. She nodded her head. “You want to?” 

Wynonna withdrew her hand, clearly feeling a bit too overwhelmed with the closeness and sincerity of the situation. “I have to make sure you don’t fuck up and make me disappear again, don’t I?” She questioned as she pulled herself off the floor. 

Biting her lip to hide a grin, Waverly hummed in response. 

“C’mon then,” Wynonna said, pulling her off the bed, “we’re out of whiskey, so I think it’s time to hit Shorty’s.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone for commenting, bookmarking and leaving kudos! It means so much to me. 
> 
> As you can probably tell, this fic is going to jump back and forth in time a bit, but I'll always make sure to let you know where we're at - and I'd also like to hear your theories and suggestios regarding Waverly's background; it's just always so fun to discuss!


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back in 1995, Michelle gets a visit from The Blacksmith, and Wynonna promises Waverly the world.

_**October 1995** _

Wynonna knew she was not supposed to, but she peeked into Willa’s diary anyway. She had seen her big sister, scribbling furiously in it last night, when they were supposed to turn off the lights and go to sleep, after their daddy had told them three times already. She’d seen her scribble, angry wrinkles across her face, and Wynonna hadn’t gotten an answer when she’d asked her big sister what she was writing about.

She knew that Willa wasn’t too pleased about the baby in the house; she now had to share her room with Wynonna, because Wynonna’s room was made into a temporary room for the baby. Wynonna had seen the displeased look on Willa’s face when their mamma had told them, and she’d quickly suggested that she stayed in the room with the baby for now.

She would have felt better about that anyway. She wanted to stay near the baby. She wanted to be there when she slept. And when she ate. And when Michelle gave her a bath. Actually, she wanted to be near the baby all the time. Ward was already naming it a problem, because Wynonna wouldn’t leave to go to school on most days. Wynonna couldn’t help it though; it felt so wrong when she was away from the baby, it felt like there was something missing, a piece of her maybe, something undefinable.

Michelle said that it was cute. She said to her husband that it was a good thing that Wynonna was so happy to have a younger sister, and that she was proving to be reliable, trustworthy, caring – all things that no one had ever called Wynonna before. (Not that Wynonna herself was really sure what all those words meant, but she was sure that they were better than ‘menace’, ‘troublemaker’ and ‘little devil’).

Her mamma hadn’t let her sleep in the baby’s room though, even if Wynonna had tried real hard to make her. Michelle had said that she couldn’t stay with a crying baby all night, because then she wouldn’t be able to focus in school, and school was, after all, important too.

Not as important as Waverly, Wynonna had thought to herself before huffing and stomping her way from the baby’s room to Willa’s room, where her father had set up her bed.

“Lights out!” He’d called, and now Wynonna was listening carefully for anyone coming up the stairs, as she threw herself onto Willa’s bed and opened the diary to the most recent page. She didn’t see any drawings, not even many words she recognised – just one word,‘Waverly’, written in Willa’s messy handwriting with big letters at the bottom of the page.

Wynonna had learned how to spell Waverly’s name only two days after she came home from the hospital.

She knew, of course, that Waverly hadn’t actually gotten home from the hospital, but from the woods, but she made good on her promise to her mother and had not even told Willa about it.

She heard Waverly cry out from the other room and quickly hid the diary back underneath Willa’s pillow, before rushing into the nursery to check on her baby sister.

Waverly was crying in her crib, green eyes wide, cheeks rosy, and with tear trails down her face. She stopped though, the second she saw her big sister staring down at her, and Wynonna reached a finger out to be grabbed by her little hand.

“Oh my God, it never stops crying.” Willa murmured as she entered the room, her math homework tucked beneath her arm and a glass of grape juice in the other. “Why did they have another baby? They had two perfectly good daughters already.”

Wynonna turned to look at her with a huff, “She’s our sister, Will, and babies cry.”

Willa rolled her eyes, “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” She stepped closer, peeked into the crib as well. “I just don’t get why she got such a pretty name. She ain’t nothing special.”

Wynonna wanted to tell her big sister that their baby sister surely was something special, the speciallest in the entire world, but she bid her tongue and said something else instead. “Is that what you wrote in your dumb diary?”

Groaning, Willa replied, “Yes.”

“That’s mean.” Wynonna just said before turning her attention back to Waverly. She didn’t understand why Willa thought that the baby was annoying – nothing this beautiful and angelic could ever be considered annoying in Wynonna’s eyes. Everything about her was perfect. Wynonna had already drawn several pictures and hung them on the wall by Waverly’s crib, and she was doing everything in her might to help her mother take care of the baby, because even if she had only just turned seven, she could tell that their father wasn’t helping much at all.

If anything, he’d started to spend even more time with Willa near the barn, teaching her how to use Peacemaker, and telling her all about their family history. Wynonna never used to think it was interesting before, but now she didn’t even try listen to in – she just kept near the baby, doing whatever, feeling like her heart was being ripped out of her chest when she wasn’t close enough to Waverly. All she wanted was to be close to Waverly, because if she wasn’t, then how was she supposed to protect her?

Ward had also started drinking a lot more beers, but Wynonna wasn’t sure if that had anything to do with the baby or not.

Willa shrugged. “I just think it’s weird. It’s not like Mamma’s belly was big or anything.”

“Why would Mamma’s belly be big?” Wynonna questioned, without looking up at Willa. She always used to think that Willa was the coolest, heck she still thought she was, but it was a bit weird that she hated the baby so much. Waverly hadn’t done anything wrong, she was just a baby, so what could she even do? No, Willa was definitely the coolest still, she just needed to know Waverly the way that Wynonna did.

Willa raised an eyebrow. “You know that’s where babies come from, right?” She asked then, tucking Wynonna’s braid behind her ear. “They come out of the Mamma’s belly, and before that the belly goes waaay big.” She replied, dragging out the ‘way’ to empathise her point.

“Mamma’s belly wasn’t big,” Wynonna whispered, wrinkling her brow and looking up at Willa, “but she got her at the hospital. Maybe we just didn’t look close enough.”

Pondering it over, Willa looked down at Waverly in the crib. Wynonna’s finger was still inside her hand, and Willa sat the glass of juice on the window sill and stuck her own finger down, letting Waverly grab it with her other hand. “I s’pose she isn’t half bad. You know, as far as babies go,” she whispered then, looking at Wynonna with a half smile. “I mean, she’ll never be as cool as me and you, but I guess we can make do.”

Wynonna knew that Willa had just needed to spend some time with the baby, and then everything would be okay, and they would all be good. Because that was the kind of awesome person that her big sister was – she was cool, older, and she was the Earp Heir, so of course she was going to help Wynonna protect Waverly, there was not a doubt about that in Wynonna’s mind. They were sisters, all of them, and they’d always have each other’s backs. She beamed up at Willa, “You’re so cool, Willa!”

Willa smirked, “Yeah, I guess I am.”

Michelle entered the room then, a tired, yet happy smile on her face. “There you are,” she whispered, stepping in between Wynonna and Willa, placing an arm around each of their shoulders, “My three beautiful daughters.”

Wynonna was happy that at least her mother believed so as well. She smiled up at her, and she thought that this, the four of them, the Earp women, would make a perfectly good family, if just Ward didn’t exist at all; didn’t come home smelling of nasty things, stumbling into the living room in the middle of the night. Logically she knew that he was supposed to teach Willa everything, and Willa, she was going to be the first female Earp Heir, and Wynonna thought that that was pretty cool.

“Do you mind grabbing your sister and coming downstairs with me?” Michelle questioned her then, squeezing Wynonna into her body with a small sigh. “You too, Willa?” She added, glancing at her oldest daughter.

Willa sighed and pulled away from the crib, grabbing her glass of juice. “Who was that coming up the road?” She demanded to know, before she downed her juice and sat the glass back on the window sill.

Michelle watched her as Wynonna reached into the crib and gently tucked Waverly into her arms, struggling a little bit. She didn’t say a word though; she’d promised her mother that she would take care of Waverly always and forever, and even if she was just a seven-year-old girl, she was determined to prove to her mother that she was right to put faith in her. Wynonna grunted as she stood up straight, cradling the baby in her arms.

Nudging them towards the doorway, Michelle explained, “One of Mamma’s friends is downstairs, and we’re going to have to talk for a bit,” she told them, as they made their way down the stairway to the kitchen, where they were immediately met with sounds of chatter and laughter. “With Wynonna too,” Michelle continued and turned to look both of her daughters in the eye, “and Waverly,” she added, and Wynonna pretended not to see Willa’s suspicious look; she had always been more their daddy’s girl than their mamma’s, and she was clearly not happy to be kept out of something that both of her sisters were going to be a part of.

Wynonna stared at her mother, “What ‘bout Willa then?” She questioned, desperately wanting her older sister to be included; everything had felt sort of off since Waverly moved in, and Wynonna knew that her sister was just wary of the baby and perhaps even scared to lose her little sister to the newest member of the family. (At least that’s what her mamma had explained to her, when Wynonna had talked about Willa one day, trying to explain her worry to her mother).

“My friend has two daughters, and I would like for you to take them outside to the barn and play,” Michelle told Willa. Her voice was serious as she locked eyes with her blonde daughter. “They’re twins, Mattie and Greta – you’re gonna make sure they have a good time while Wynonna look after Waverly, and Mamma talks to her friend, okay?”

The oldest Earp daughter rolled her eyes, and it was clear to Wynonna that Willa was not pleased with these turn of events, but she shrugged nonetheless and continued down the stairs. Wynonna shot her mother a soft smile, clutching Waverly even further into her chest.

They entered the kitchen, and Wynonna saw two girls – practically identical safe for their clothes and the lengths of their hair – standing next to a woman who had the same dark and unruly hair as them. She was dressed in black, and had sod and dirt smudged over her clothes and her face, and her bare arms, and Willa scrunched up her nose in dissatisfaction.

“I’m The Blacksmith,” she explained, and Wynonna felt a wave of uncertainty rush over her, as the woman – this stranger that Mamma said was her friend, even if Wynonna had never heard her mentioned before – stepped closer and kneeled down to glance at Waverly in Wynonna’s arms. “Yes,” she whispered, stroking a dirty finger across Waverly’s cheek, “yes, I see it. She is definitely not from here,” she whispered, glancing quickly up at Michelle.

Michelle’s jaw clenched, “But can you do it?”

“A spell?” The Blacksmith questioned, standing up again, not before studying Wynonna’s face closer, “Yes, I can do this for you,” she finished, her eyes tracing every inch of Wynonna’s face, which made the seven-year-old feel even more uncomfortable. Without even realising it, she tucked the baby closer to her chest.

Willa seemed to get the hint that this was her cue to leave. She sighed, “Greta. Mattie,” she caught their attention, “Come with me, and we can go play in the barn,” she finished, before waving the twins with her through the backdoor, not before shooting a longing glance towards the party in the kitchen.

The Blacksmith opened a bag and started placing different items on the kitchen table, while Michelle took a seat and urged Wynonna to come closer as well. “This has to be done delicately. Not too much, not too little,” she told the other woman with a trembling voice. “It can’t hit me or Ward, perhaps not even Willa as she’s the heir and we can’t mess with that.”

“That girl is the heir?” The Blacksmith questioned, glancing towards the door that Willa had lead her daughters through. She seemed confused, as she looked back at Wynonna. “I just thought that,” she stopped herself, lighting candles and placing them in a pattern around the table. “Nevermind,” she finished, shrugging.

Michelle placed an arm around Wynonna’s shoulders, “Wynonna is the one this is about,” she said, “and Waverly too, of course, not that she’ll remember much, she’s just a baby.”

Nodding, The Blacksmith turned to Wynonna with a stiff smile. “I promise you, Wynonna, that I’m not going to hurt your sister. Your mother has told me how you take such good care of her, and I’ll continue to let you do that, but,” she paused; reached a hand out and padded a clear spot in front of her, “I’m going to need you to hand the baby to your mother, because I need your hand right here.”

Tentatively, Wynonna looked at Michelle, who gave her a slight nod in response. Shifting on her feet to hand over Waverly to their mother, she bit her lip and placed a fisted hand on the table in front of the other woman. She had no idea what was going to happen, and why Willa couldn’t be a part of it, but she trusted her mother, she trusted that her mother knew best, so therefore she just did what she was told. She knew it had something to do with Waverly and the woods, she could just feel that, but as long as this Blacksmith told her that she’d still be able to take care of Waverly, Wynonna trusted that it was all going to be okay.

“Good,” The Blacksmith whispered, padding her hand and reaching for some kind of liquid in a bottle. “This is going to maybe sting a little, smell a little, even burn a little, but don’t move,” she told Wynonna with a serious face, “I’m not going to hurt you, OK?”

“You can trust her, baby,” Michelle reassured her, as she cradled Waverly in her arms, love shining through her blue eyes.

Swallowing, Wynonna let her fisted hand stay right where it was. He mother had always told her to be brave.

The Blacksmith nodded, taking this as her cue to continue, “OK, ready?” She whispered, before she squeezed a few drops of liquid onto Wynonna’s hand on the table, “With this water and salt, I bind you…”

**xxx**

Wynonna woke up to her parents fighting on most nights.

It wasn’t like it was anything new; they’d always been fighting over something or other, but lately it was just the baby. Ward would be yelling at Michelle, saying he didn’t understand why they needed to take care of the baby, and that he didn’t want anymore damn children, and why had Michelle ever brought her home.

Wynonna just couldn’t phantom how anyone could not love the beautiful creature who was sleeping soundly – in spite of the yelling – in the other room.

They’d made it official now and everything; Wynonna had gone with Michelle to get the baby a birth certificate; Waverly Earp it read, date of birth: September 8th 1995. Wynonna had been so happy when they finally left the fancy offices in the city, and now the piece of paper was resting in the desk in their parents’ bedroom, which meant that anyone couldn’t ever question if Waverly was truly Wynonna’s sister or not.

Her father’s booming voice interrupted her thoughts as he yelled, “That thing is not my fucking daughter, Michelle!”

Wynonna winced as she heard Michelle yell back, “Lower your damn voice, Ward! And the fuck it is, she’s as much our daughter as Wynonna and Willa are!”

Nodding to herself, Wynonna carefully slipped out of bed, as her father yelled back – not lowering his voice at all – at Michelle; “Like fuck she is!”

Wynonna didn’t want the baby to wake up – she didn’t think it would be good for her, but mostly she just didn’t want her father to get even more annoyed than he already was. So she ignored the blue numbers from Willa’s nightstand that read 01:13 AM, and slipped into her bunny slippers by the door, before soundlessly creeping out of her room and across the hall.

The door to the nursery was closed, so Wynonna crept inside, closing it behind her again with a small click. The baby was starting to stir awake, she could see that, so she turned off the baby monitor and climbed over the bars, settling down besides Waverly inside of the crib. It was a tight fit, but she was there, and she cradled Waverly inside of her arms, humming once more as she tried to block out the continuous sound of their parents fighting downstairs in the living room. She knew it’d probably end with Ward slamming the door and going into town to Shorty’s, even at this late hour, and perhaps he’d crash with Uncle Curtis and Aunt Gus, and then their mother would crawl into bed alone, and Wynonna would do her best to ignore her crying instead.

She had no idea how Willa always slept through all of this, because she had always found it impossible to.

Waverly whimpered in her arms, and Wynonna schussed her, “There, there,” she whispered, brushing her head and swaying back and forth. “It’ll be okay, baby girl,” she continued, promising Waverly the world and meaning it too. What she wouldn’t give to make sure that Waverly would never have to wake at night to their parents yelling at each other, what she wouldn’t give to make sure that Waverly didn’t disappoint Willa for her mere existence. What she wouldn’t do to make sure that Waverly knew just how special she was.

“Don’t mind those shit-tickets,” she whispered pressing the baby’s cheek to her own. “I know it’s hard to believe, but I’m always here for you, baby girl. I can’t say it’s gonna be fine, ‘cause it probably won’t, but I’m here for you, ‘kay? I’m here. I’m your big sister, and I’ll always be here.”

In her heart, Wynonna meant it – that she’d always be there – but life has a way of twisting everything around, and therefore it should turn out to be much harder to always be there for Waverly than seven-year-old Wynonna had initially thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all of your kind comments and kudos! I'm so happy you're with me so far. I try to take every information that the show has provided us with into account as I write this, so I really hope that it does make sense to you guys. 
> 
> I also hope that the back and forth between times is not too confusing, because that's the way it's gotta be with this fic. At least for now.


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In 2017, Wynonna likes to annoy both Dolls and Nicole, but eventually goes to find out where Doc has been spending most of his time.
> 
> or 
> 
> No Waverly in this chapter, just a lot of talking ‘bout her.

**_September 2017_ **

Wynonna thought that Dolls was acting weird, and that was saying something, coming from her.   
He was being vague, distant, and even though he was the master of vague and distant, it had been a while since he had kept something from her in such a way – not that she'd asked him if he was keeping something from her, but she knew that he was, because he was back to being the 'shut up and do what I say'-Dolls, instead of the 'I missed you, like, so much'-Dolls. And there was a huge difference between those two kinds of Dollses.

She wasn't about to be all up in his business though, because she had secrets too, and the guilt was starting to gnaw away at her in a way she had never experienced before. Maybe it was because Waverly had been so absolutely wrecked by her decision to give the third seal to Widow Beth to save Nicole's life and thus betraying Wynonna, but now Wynonna herself was feeling guilty for lying to her sister about their mamma and the fact that she had had contact with her for quite a while.

Wynonna still wasn't sure why their mother had wanted to keep Waverly out of it; why her younger sister couldn't know. She was just sure that Waverly was going to be devastated about this fact. Sure, the DNA-test had revealed that Waverly was not a child of their parents, but that didn't mean that she didn't think of Michelle Earp as her mother – and she probably hoped that Michelle could explain a few things to her. Wynonna had barely breached the subject of Waverly's heritage with her mother, because she had had a lot of other things on her plate, but she had the desire to demand answers from Michelle, even if she was sure that the oldest Earp would not tell her a single thing.

It was just that... she wanted to do everything in her might to protect Waverly from even more hurt. Even if she was still somehow pissed at her for choosing Nicole over her, Wynonna could understand why she had done it. It wasn't like she had always been the best sister to Waverly, with leaving her behind and traveling to Europe and everything. It was just – Waverly was the good one, she always had been, so Wynonna couldn't help but feel disappointed in her. She would still do everything in her might though, to protect her baby sister from all harm, because if there was one person in this world that she had always had a strong connection to, it was Waverly. Ever since her parents brought her home from the hospital.

Wynonna could still remember how she would sneak into Waverly's room at night, singing to her, comforting her by holding her close and whispering things into her ears. It had gone on since Waverly was a baby, throughout her younger years, until the fateful night where Wynonna had killed their father and had been sent away.

And then she couldn't be there for Waverly anymore.  
  
"So," she questioned, hopping onto Dolls' desk and staring down at him over her coffee cup, "my super sexy dragon lizard. How are we holding up?"

Dolls squinted his eyes at her, "Earp."

She took a sip of her coffee, letting the hot liquid warm her throat. "Are you gonna tell me what has your fancy pants in a twist these days?"

He didn't look too pleased with her. "My pants are not twisting," he said, grabbing his own mug and sipping his coffee. "Just research on Bulshar, you know? Haught and I are researching Bulshar."

"Mh," she said, raising an eyebrow and boring her eyes into his, "Sure thing. Bulshar. Do we have any whiskey around here?"

Dolls sighed. "Isn't it a little too early to spice up your coffee, Earp?"

Shaking her head at him, Wynonna moved from his desk, the one that Nedley so kindly had offered him in his old office, and through the door and into the front offices, spotting Nicole at her desk, hunched over a stack of paper. "Haught," she called, smirking at the look of annoyance that swept over the officer's face, "now I get to annoy you."

Nicole rubbed her shoulder as she sat up straight. "That's awesome, Wynonna, just great," she replied. She closed the papers on her desk and gave Wynonna her full attention. "What's up?"

"How's Waverly doing these days?" Wynonna asked her then, placing a foot on a spare chair and leaning over to look Nicole in the eyes. "I mean, is she OK? Does she tell you things?"

A look of confusion flickered across Nicole’s face, and she brushed a piece of runaway red hair out of her eyes. "Waverly's fine, I mean. She mostly worries about you," Nicole admitted, reaching a finger out to play with the pen she had discarded moments earlier.

Wynonna loved nothing more than to mess with Nicole, actually it had come to be one of her favourite pastimes, because whenever Wynonna made a fuss over the fact that Nicole had seen her baby sister naked, the officer would get flustered and awkward. Sure, Nicole really was a bit too brisk for Wynonna's taste, too much of a goody-two-shoes (she was a police officer for fuck's sake), but she did care about Nicole, heck she even loved her. Mostly because Waverly did, but also because she could see just how deeply Nicole cared for her sister, and that was worth everything in her book.

Anyone who cared – and looked out – for Waverly was a great person in her eyes.

"Why's she worried about me?" Wynonna asked then, sipping her coffee and keeping Nicole from her actual job, which was always fun.

Nicole smiled softly at her. "You know, you just sent your child away, Wynonna, it's just natural for her to worry about you. It was a big decision."

Wynonna liked to pretend that Nicole wasn't right about things, so she simply just shrugged. "It was the only thing to do, couldn't risk her," she replied, sipping her coffee again, once more disappointed that there wasn't any whiskey in it. "Besides, Gus can take way better care of her. She raised Waverly, and Waverly's the good one, so."

Reaching a hand out to gently rub Wynonna's hand, Nicole replied, "You're good too, Wynonna."

"Yadda, yadda, yadda," Wynonna babbled, uncomfortable with all of this affection from the other woman. "You've seen her anywhere? Waverly?" She questioned then, looking around the station, trying to see if the tiny Earp had tugged herself into a corner somewhere with her book and her coffee. There was no tiny Earp though.

"At the library," Nicole just replied, turning her attention back to the papers in front of her. "I really should finish this paperwork before Nedley gets back from Shorty's," she explained, clearly wanting Wynonna to leave her desk.

Wynonna didn't want to leave Nicole's desk though. "What about Doc? You've seen him? He disappears these days," she continued, taking another gulp of her coffee. Damn, she really should remember her flask more often, so she didn't have to drink boring coffee-only coffees.  
Sighing, Nicole opened her papers and clicked her pen, ready to get back to work. "I'm not supposed to tell you, because for some reason he thinks it's his duty to figure all of this out for Waverly's sake, but he's out by the well, trying to get Bobo to talk," she rattled off, not meeting Wynonna's eyes, simply just staring at her papers.

"Damn that Doc Holliday," Wynonna cursed to herself, before she turned on her heel and stormed towards the parking lot, letting Nicole get back to work, and letting coffee be coffee. If Doc thought that he had the right to torment Bobo by himself, he had another thing coming! Dude wasn’t going to have all the fun by himself, not if Wynonna could help it.

She threw one leg over her motorbike, ignoring Waverly’s voice in her head, telling her to remember a helmet more often, and turning the engine on with a roar. She circled the parking lot quickly, before turning her bike towards the outskirts of town, fuelled by her annoyance with Doc and his Doc-ish antics.

Wind was blowing her hair back as she speeded down the road, all by her lonesome; she didn’t meet any cars or other people, and she could feel the sun pricking away at her skin. She’d been driving around on her bike a lot lately, relinquishing in the feeling of freedom it gave her. It was the way she used to feel when she traveled around Europe and decided on her own where she wanted to go, what she wanted to do, and whom she wanted to do it with. She didn’t have no obligations back then, and she sometimes missed that. It didn’t mean that she would ever go back to the way things used to be though.

She had Waverly now, and things were just starting to feel so good between them. It had taken a while after she came back in town; not seeing each other for three years can really fuck up your relationship. And Waverly had grown up so much over that timespan, those crucial years. It wasn’t just her hair that had grown out, that was for sure. And Wynonna truly loved the relationship she had with her sister now, even if that meant that Waverly could disappoint her, hurt her – infuriate her – like no other person, because she simply cared so much.

No, Wynonna would never run away like that again, because not only did she have Waverly back in her life in a good place, but she also had Dolls, Doc, heck even Nicole and Jeremy. Nedley was starting to grow on her too, like, who was she going to knack on if he wasn’t a part of her life? She’d just have to stick with the feeling of freedom she felt when she rode her bike, which thankfully Uncle Curtis – God rest his soul – had left for her. It was a welcome change of phase every once in a while, that was for sure.

The motorbike came to a skidding stop not far from where Doc Holliday was leaning against the side of the well, smoke hanging from the corner of his mouth, and hat perched atop his head as per usual. He was looking into the well, the makeshift lid of wood tossed carelessly on the ground besides him. Wynonna thought that the point of the lid would have been for Bobo to be left the hell alone out here for as long as possible, but she figured that Doc must’ve decided that information was more important than revenge. At least this gave them something else to focus on – not just Bulshar, but also Waverly.

It gave them something to think about. Something that wasn’t Alice Michelle.

Doc must have recognised the roar of her engine, but he didn’t look up as she crawled off her bike and stepped closer. She glanced into the well as she leaned her hands against the bricks. She could see Bobo at the bottom; he was still in that ugly-ass white gown from the alternate universe with the fur coat over his shoulders. He didn’t look too bothered by the fact that he was stuck at the bottom of a well. But of course. He had all the time in the world.

“Wynonna Earp, to what do I owe this immense pleasure?” He questioned, glaring up at her as he leaned against the wall of his prison.

She ignored him and turned to Doc instead. He was smoking absentmindedly, not looking at her, puffing out clouds of smoke and squinting his eyes against the midday sun. “What the freaking hell are you out here for?”

“I should not have told the good officer Haught where I’ve been spending a better part of my days,” he simply started, still not turning to meet her eyes.

Wynonna turned around so her back was against the bricks, and she reached a hand out, silently asking for a cigarette. “What are you doing with him?” She demanded, slightly motioning towards Bobo in the well, as if there was any doubt about whom she was talking.

He whipped one of out his pocket, and as he turned to look at her, he turned on a match and watched as she sucked on it. “I am merely trying to acquire some important intel from my old acquaintance Mr. Robert Svane here,” he replied, dropping the match to the ground and lightly stepping on it. He glanced briefly into the well, before his blue eyes met hers.

Wynonna figured that this was where he’d been hanging out lately. She just wasn’t sure why it was so important for him to figure all of this out. It wasn’t like Bobo was going to tell them the truth or anything. Waverly’s plan with Greta was probably going to be more successful. She blew out smoke through her nose. “But uh,” she paused, “why?”

“Bobo del Rey has been telling falsehoods to our Waverly,” Doc said then, turning his back to the well as well, standing beside her, their shoulders barely brushing. “I am not saying that he does not deserve to be left alone inside this godforsaken well, I am just saying that knowledge of Waverly’s parentage seems to have become of rather importance to me.”

Raising an eyebrow, Wynonna further questioned, “What does Waverly’s parentage mean to you?”

Doc continued to stare into the sky as he huffed out smoke.

“Look, I get that this is important to Waves, but I thought we agreed,” she said, “Bobo stays alone in the well,” she finished. He didn’t look at her, and she wasn’t quite sure why it bothered her. Doc Holliday was not always easy to get a read on, but she was pretty sure that she knew him fairly well by now. At least she thought she did; they shared a daughter for fuck’s sake. And that would always bind them together, even if she was having crazy kinda feelings for Dolls as well, and this entire thing was too confusing.

She knew that Doc had a soft spot for Waverly, and that he would do anything for her baby sister; what she didn’t know was why. Even if he was miffed with her, he’d drop everything in his two gorgeous hands to help Waverly. She also seemed to be one of the only people who could really tell him off and give him a guilt trip. She just didn’t totally get the connection that they shared. Maybe, she realised, as Doc turned to look at her again, Doc didn’t totally get it either.

Doc threw his burned down cigarette to the ground. “It has been mentioned, in many unkind words, that Waverly is kin,” he said to her then, eyes boring slightly into hers, and moustache twitching as he spoke, “I am just attempting my best at figuring out what such term of expression might mean, coming from the likes of Bobo del Rey,” he finished.

Wynonna still wasn’t satisfied with his explanation, because it wasn’t really an explanation at all. She turned around and stared into the well, where Bobo was still looking up at them, probably trying to listen in on their conversation. “But what’s it to you?” She prodded on, trying one more time to get him to explain what the fuck was going on inside of his brain. She was really starting to regret not spicing up her morning coffee.

As if reading her mind, Doc got out his flask from his inner pocket; he took a small sip of it, before handing it to Wynonna, who gladly threw away her cigarette for the burning of alcohol down her throat. He sighed. “There are many a thing I have not disclosed to you about my time as a drug lord in an alternative universe,” he begun, taking his flask back from her and stuffing it back into his pocket.

Nodding her head, Wynonna pushed a piece of her unruly hair behind her ear and let her eyes meet his. “What happened, dude?”

Squeezing his eyebrows together, he was silent for a little while as he mused over how to tell her what was so clearly gnawing at him. He ran his fingers through his moustache and went on with it. “Do you recall how Waverly told you, that as Dolls had shot me, I drew my last breaths in her arms?”

“Yeah,” she replied, nodding her head one more time, “you died in Shorty’s.”

“I cannot explain to you why it felt the way that it did,” he continued on, his hat casting dark shadows on his face as he raised his chin, “but as I died, looking into Waverly’s eyes, it felt as if though we were connected somehow,” he added, letting their eyes meet, as he got out another cigarette, worrying it between his fingers, making no attempt to light it. “And not only did I die in Waverly’s arms that day, what I have not disclosed to anyone is that fact that I did not get to go to heaven and have a drink with Wyatt like the good ole days,” he paused, placing the cigarette in his mouth and reaching for his box of matches in his pocket.

Wynonna pushed herself away from the side of the well, stepping onto the grass, her back turned towards Doc, as she came to realise what his words meant. If he hadn’t gone to heaven, there was only one other place that Doc could have gone. She turned to look at him; she knew he wouldn’t want her to worry, but she couldn’t help it. Heck, she’d probably end up down there with him one day, while Dolls, Nicole and Waverly would be up there, having a blast with Wyatt and Uncle Curtis and Shorty. “You went to hell,” she clarified, not that it was really needed. She knew though, that Doc had done many horrible things in his life, made deals with witches, lied, generally lived a life in sin, but that still didn’t counteract all the incredible things that he’d also done. At least in the last few months.

Lighting his smoke, Doc nodded his head. “Sure did,” he said, “and it was burning hot.”

Trotting back and forth in front of him, Wynonna kept thinking. Waverly had even told her that she’d been wrecked in that alternate universe, when Doc had died in her arms. Despite the fact that she’d initially feared him and thought him to be dangerous, she’d cradled him, wearing their mamma’s wedding dress and a crown of flowers, as he died on the floor, casting out a last term of endearment – ‘baby girl’ – as he’d grown so accustomed to calling her. Wynonna hadn’t thought much of it when Waverly first told her about it; she’d still been royally pissed at her sister, and she’d just lost her daughter, so worrying about weird alternate universes hadn’t really been her top priority, but now that she had the time – oh, oh. She’d worry. She’d worry good.

Coming to a halt, Wynonna realised that Doc’s term of endearment for Waverly came awfully close to her own favourite one – ‘baby sis’ – which was just as often ‘baby girl’, but not ‘Wave’ or ‘Waves’ like other people usually called her. She’d always been her baby girl, always. Ever since… Wynonna sighed and turned to look at Doc again. Ever since Waverly was born, she’d always been Wynonna’s baby girl.

“Aren’t you going to say a single thing?” Doc question then. The air around him was grey with smoke as he pulsated away.

Wynonna went back to resting her back against the side of the well. “I don’t know, man, I really don’t,” she shook her head, “I wanna figure out this shit for Waverly as much as the next person, but can we even trust Bobo?”

Doc turned around to look into the well again, and Wynonna followed suit, staring down at Bobo, who had now taken to sitting against the wall of his enclosure, but still looking up at them expectantly. Doc threw his cigarette bud down at him. “I really do not know, Wynonna,” he said then. “All I know is, that my time on this earth has been been shortened, as I am no longer tied to my ring,” he stared shortly down at his finger where the ring used to be, “and if I do not want to end up down there with a lot of ferocious outlaws, I need to redeem the wrong-doings of my past.”

Nodding, Wynonna was beginning to understand that there was more to Doc’s actions than just his affections for Waverly, even if they of course weighted a great deal on him. She could also tell that he was beginning to worry, beginning to come to terms with the fact that he was now as close to dying as the rest of them; that he was going to live his life with them, grow old with them and eventually die – just like them.

“Resolving this matter is of consequence,” he said to her then, eyes boring into hers. “For Waverly’s sake and for my own.”

Wynonna glanced into the well and stared down at Bobo. She was revolted by the mere sight of his ugly face. She sighed in defeat, “Okay,” she whispered, meeting his eyes again, “but at least let me throw some rocks on him or something.”

Doc couldn’t hide hit shit-eating grin.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your kind comments, reading and kudos.
> 
> It was really fun to try my hand at writing Doc, though it was also quite the challenge, I must say. Next chapter will be Nicole’s point of view, and I can’t wait to try that either.


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2017\. Nicole, Wynonna and Waverly go to visit Greta; there’s some German, a flask of whiskey and an old photograph.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once I started writing, this chapter took on a life on its own - therefore it’s slightly longer than the others, but I hope you guys like it!

**_September 2017_ **

"You ready to go, Haught-stuff?"

Nicole looked up from her desk, where she'd been working, hunched over a stack of boring paperwork. She caught sight of the giant clock on the wall, right behind Wynonna's mane of wild curls. Huh. It was already 6 PM, and she'd been working on this shitty stack of papers for three hours straight.

The redhead clicked her pen and stretched her arms. Damn, her back was killing her. "Where's Waves?" She questioned, putting her papers away and locking them in her desk-drawer. She couldn't have Lonnie finding them and messing it all up with wrong files and forms, it had taken her too damn long for that.

Wynonna clicked her tongue. "She's outside in the jeep," she just said, before she turned on her heel and scurried out of the station.

Nicole sighed and pushed her chair back. It wasn't that she didn't think this trip to visit Greta was a good idea, it was just that she didn't think it was a good idea. She hardly believed that it was going to be a fruitful trip; what Waverly expected to learn from Greta was beyond her, especially after she tricked her the last time she came to her for help (which Nicole was entirely grateful for, make no mistake on that). Greta was just – she was conning, and maybe she really wanted to make up for her last mistake, but Nicole just wasn't sure if they should trust her.

She grabbed her jacket from the back of her chair, made sure she had her keys in one pocket and her cell phone in the other, before she followed in Wynonna's steps. It had been a long day, but Nicole was looking forward to spending some time with Waverly tonight, even if it was as a part of this asinine project. Not that Nicole didn't support her girlfriend in everything that she wanted to do, because she really did; she had promised Waverly a long time ago, that she would be there every step of this journey, and she would stick to that promise. Mostly because she couldn't dream of letting Waverly walk this path alone. It couldn't be easy, finding out that everything you thought you knew about yourself was a lie, and if Nicole knew anything about Waverly, it was that being an Earp was so damn important to her. To Nicole it didn't matter though, whether Waverly was an Earp, part supernatural or something else entirely. To her – she was just extraordinary.

She stepped into the afternoon sun, it was sitting low in the sky, about to disappear on the horizon, and she wrapped her coat tighter around herself. She hadn't been in Purgatory that long, and the weather was getting a lot colder than she was usually pleased with; of course it was always so damn cold in Purgatory, and Nicole was still trying to adjust to that. It was all a part of Purgatory and therefore it was a part of being the next sheriff, a part of being with Waverly for as long as she would have her.

A blaring sound of a car horn disrupted Nicole's thoughts, and she turned her eyes to the red jeep, where Wynonna was grinning evilly at her from behind the steering wheel. Nicole rolled her eyes and hurried across the parking lot, mentally getting ready for an evening with the Earp sisters and their asinine antics.

Waverly jumped out of the jeep and met her with a gentle kiss. Her lithe body crashed into Nicole's as she wrapped her arms around her shoulders and hummed happily into the redhead's mouth.

"Hi," she whispered with a sweet smile as she pulled back. The crinkles around her green eyes showed Nicole just how happy she was to see her.

She felt her dimples coming out as she smiled back. "Hi yourself," she pressed a kiss to her girlfriend's forehead and tucked her into her side. It was incredible, the way Waverly fitted so nicely beneath her armpit. It was almost as if she had been made to sit against Nicole's side because it was just that perfect.

Wynonna stuck her head out of the open window in the jeep, "You assholes ready to go after your nauseatingly cute display of affection?"

Waverly made a face at her sister. “Wyn,” she warned, pulling Nicole with her into the jeep; she was squeezed into the middle between them, and Nicole wrapped an arm around her shoulder, as Wynonna pulled the car in reverse and drove out of the parking lot.

Nicole was going to pretend that they were not going well over the speed-limit just to avoid confrontation. Waverly smiled sheepishly at her, without a doubt knowing what was going through Nicole’s mind. The redhead grinned back at her. “So what’s the plan, Waves?”

The youngest Earp brushed a piece of hair out of her face; it had escaped from her loose side-braid during the day, where she’d been running in and out of the police station, going to the library or to Shorty’s or to the coffee shop to get everybody coffees. Nicole’s girlfriend was greatly appreciated by all the other officers on her shift; she always brought coffee, sandwiches or baked goods. Of course Waverly had always been Purgatory’s sweetheart (there was that thing about the sash to prove it), but they loved her even more now, if possible, because now she came often enough and she always, always made sure to bring them something delicious. Nicole didn’t see any of her co-workers’ wives or girlfriends doing that, so she was quite proud to be the one who got to call Waverly Earp her girlfriend in the break room.

Waverly sighed, “Greta’s not working today, so we’re going out to talk to her. After Mattie’s death she’s been hanging around her place a lot, so we’ll just have to be careful so we don’t sneak up on her.”

Wynonna grunted, “And the landmines.”

Nicole felt her eyes widen, “Landmines? Waves-? What?”

“Relax Wynonna, they’re not active,” Waverly replied with an eye-roll as she held onto Nicole’s thigh, because Wynonna drove around a corner at insane speed. Nicole felt her heart beat wildly in her chest. “I know Greta is a little, uh,” she pause, searching for the right word, “intense. But she promised to help me, and her sister was really nice, so I refuse to believe that she’ll fuck me over again.”

Nicole huffed. “That’d be a shitty move,” she whispered through clenched teeth. If Greta made even the smallest of action that Nicole did not approve of, she’d have Wynonna and Waverly out of that place in three seconds flat. She was not taking any chances, especially because she’d had enough near-death experiences since moving to Purgatory. She refused to think too much about the fact that she’d actually died – literally stopped breathing – that day in the ditch with the Jack of Knives, nearly lost her life to the Widow poison and been blown up in a barn.

She’d never thought her life would turn out like this; running from crazy supernatural shit and carefully trying not to die. She wouldn’t change a thing though, because she had Waverly by her side, and if there was one thing she knew, if was that Waverly was supposed to be by her side. That fucking alternate universe had proven to her what she already knew; she and Waverly were destined to be together, whatever the fuck that meant in a place like Purgatory.

“She’s not gonna do anything,” Waverly replied, batting her eyelashes at Nicole and smiling that sweet smile of hers.

Wynonna’s right hand clenched the steering wheel as she reached into her leather jacket to grab a flask with her left hand. She opened the flask with her teeth, and Nicole felt her eyes go wide when she realised that the oldest Earp was about to take a swig of it, even being behind the wheel. Before Waverly had time to react, or Wynonna had time to drink anything, Nicole had reached across the car and grabbed the flask from her. “Uh, no you don’t,” she said, glaring at her.

The dark-haired brunette rolled her eyes, “Relax Haught-shot, I was only gonna take a little sip of it!”

Nicole shook her head, before looking at the flask in her hand. She felt Waverly give her thigh a reassuring squeeze, and Nicole knew that she was going to need all of her strength to get through whatever it was that they were getting themselves into now. She bent her head back and took a long sip of the flask. The whiskey burned comfortingly down her throat; she’d never been one for strong alcohol, but like so many other things had changed in her life, so had her need for stronger alcohol. Apparently that was something that came with hanging out with Earps, at least that’s what Waverly had told her.

Her girlfriend grabbed the flask from her and took a sip as well, wincing at the alcohol, and Wynonna huffed in offence. “Hey, no fair! That’s mine, you bitches,” she spat at them, but there was a playful tone to her voice, and Nicole swore she saw love floating through those blue eyes.

“Like you aren’t gonna get to drink the rest when we arrive,” Waverly promised her, placing a sweet kiss to her sister’s cheek, as she pulled the lid onto the flask and made good on her promise. “I’d never dare drink whiskey without you, sis,” she whispered, love lacing her every word.

Nicole squeezed Waverly closer to her body as she watched the interaction between the two sisters. She knew that things hadn’t been easy for the sisters, she had listened to Waverly’s stories about being left back here in Purgatory with Gus and Curtis, and her only living family member traveling across Europe. She’d heard Waverly’s stories about being only six years old and having a sister in a mental institution and going to live with her aunt and uncle who had always taken great care of her, sure, but also always told her that Wynonna’s stories and her own memories of demons and a magic gun were not true, even though, in retrospect, Waverly knew that they had known that it was all true. And therefore had intentionally lied to her.

Nicole was just so happy to see that Waverly had her sister back; of course their relationship had had its trials, especially with Wynonna’s pregnancy and Waverly’s doubts about her past, but it had also proven just how close the two of them were, how much they could stand through together. And Nicole just knew that it was only going to grow stronger, because they weren’t near done sending the outlaws back to hell, and if other supernatural shit kept coming in the way, it was going to take a damn long time to catch all of Wyatt’s kills.

They drove onto Mattie’s land, and the jeep came to a screeching stop not far from the barn. They all jumped out of the car, and the second their feet touched the ground, Wynonna held a demanding hand out, and Waverly gave the flask over with a huff. There were sounds coming from the barn; it was cracked open, and light was streaming out into the darkness of the evening. The sun had set completely on the way, and Nicole was once more thankful that she’d grabbed her jacket before leaving the station, because now it was even colder than outside in the parking lot.

She tucked her hands into her pockets. “So,” she said, staring at them from beneath her cap, “what’s the game plan?”

Waverly begun, “Well, we’re going to-”

“We go in there like fucking badasses and demand fucking answers,” Wynonna interrupted, as she finished her flask and stuffed it back into her inner pocket. She reached into her boot and pulled Peacemaker out, staring at them expectantly.

Nicole couldn’t hide her smile at the small huff Waverly let out. The youngest Earp brushed past her sister. “Do you hafta be so crass about it,” she mumbled, grabbing Nicole’s hand on the way, and hauling her towards the open barn door. She pushed it open with her free hand, and Nicole heard Wynonna cackling behind them.

Greta wasn’t working on anything dangerous, she was just hauling stuff into piles, apparently loading boxes and sorting through her sister’s old things. She looked up when they entered, and immediately froze in her actions when she realised who had come to see her. Even if she helped Wynonna and Waverly before, it was clear that there was animosity between them, especially coming from Wynonna. Nicole could practically feel it oozing off of the Earp heir, hitting her in small waves.

Greta’s eyes fell on Peacemaker in Wynonna’s hand. “Oh,” she whispered, dropping a piece of metal to the floor with a clank, “great.”

“Damn straight,” Wynonna replied, leaning herself against a stack of closed boxes.

Waverly took a much kinder approach. She stepped closer to Greta, wrapping that giant leopard print jacket around herself as she greeted her. “Hello,” she said, “uhm. I have come to talk to you about a favour that I need.”

Greta’s eyes were still focused on Peacemaker. “Are you gonna threaten me like the last time?” She wondered, raising an eyebrow at them.

Nicole couldn’t help it; maybe it was because she knew how this person had tricked Waverly, or maybe it had just been a really long day, but she felt instantly provoked. “Watch it,” she spat, taking a step closer to Waverly, just in case she needed to step in front of her love.

“Glad to see you’re alive,” Greta replied as her eyes settled on Nicole, gracing over her face and down her body.

“Yeah,” Wynonna sneered at her, “no thanks to you by the way.”

Waverly reached a hand out and grabbed one of Nicole’s (the other had gone to rest dutifully on her belt, ready to grab her gun in case it became necessary). She interlaced their fingers and Nicole felt instantly lighter. “Calm down, okay,” she said, huffing and shaking her head at the three hard-headed women in the room with her. “No need to fight! I just wanna talk to you,” she finished, locking her eyes to Greta’s.

The other woman sighed. “I guess I do owe you that,” she – thankfully for her, Nicole thought to herself – replied, before hopping onto a table and resting her foot on one of the boxes. “What can I do for you, Waverly?”

Trying to suppress her smile, but failing like she did whenever she tried to hide her emotions, Waverly spoke. “So, I’ve been doing a bit of investigation into my past, because it has become apparent to me, to, to us,” she gestured towards Wynonna with her free hand, “that I might not be Wynonna’s biological sister,” she paused, and a look of confusion fleeted across her face, “and uh, we’re trying to figure out where that leaves me, you know? We really just wanna find out.”

Greta looked at her in confusion. “And I can help you with that?”

“I know Mattie was The Blacksmith, and before her your mother was The Blacksmith,” Waverly told her, shuffling nervously on her feet. Nicole gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, trying to let her know, without any words, that she was there every step of the way. “And uh, in case you didn’t know, your sister was very kind to me before she died, she uh, she helped me with some things,” she continued on, whispering, “a spell, a binding.”

Nodding her head, Greta was finally starting to catch on. “I see,” she said, and a look of true contemplation came upon her face. She was quiet for a few seconds then, apparently thinking things over. “My magic isn’t the same as Mattie’s – or even my mother’s – I’m the Iron Witch, not The Blacksmith.”

Nicole was confused. “But it’s all iron, isn’t it? There was iron in my veins.”

Greta’s head snapped to look at her. “True,” she said, jumping off the table and going straight towards a closed box and ripping it open. “I didn’t say I can’t help you, just that my magic is different.”

“Everything comes with a price with you, doesn’t it,” Wynonna said then. It really wasn’t a question, it was just to state their current situation. Nicole wasn’t sure if Wynonna was ready to pay another price to Greta; the last one had almost cost them everything.

Nicole didn’t want to let Greta answer that. “So what can you do?”

“Do you remember,” Greta said, and for a second Nicole was confused, because she would have thought for Greta to address Waverly again, but she had turned to look fully at Wynonna, “that my mother took Mattie and I out to visit the homestead when we were kids?”

Wynonna’s shoulders dropped a little, and she stared at the other woman in confusion. “No?” She questioned, eyes wide, “You guys never came to visit.”

Greta nodded her head, “Yeah. We did,” she said, finally finding what she had been looking for in the box. She pulled it out with a satisfied smile, handing it over to Wynonna who took it with a huff. “I remember it so clearly, because Willa took Mattie and I into the barn to play, while my mother stayed in the kitchen with your mom and…” she swallowed and looked to Waverly, “and you guys.”

Wynonna was still looking at what appeared to be an old photograph, “I – I don’t remember this,” she whispered, running her finger along the photograph before handing it over to Nicole, who eagerly looked down at it with Waverly by her side. Indeed, it was an old photograph. It was taken on the homestead, Nicole clearly recognised the barn, though in much greater shape than now, it appeared. And she could see what looked like two almost identical girls, clearly Mattie and Greta, standing next to what she recognised as Willa – she looked just like herself from the other pictures Nicole had seen, perhaps just a few years younger.

Waverly gasped audibly next to her, and Nicole could only guess what had caused that reaction – though it wasn’t very hard to, considering the fact that there was a woman next to what appeared to be Mattie and Greta’s mom, and that woman looked so much like Wynonna that it could only be Michelle Earp. Nicole was certain of this, even if she had never seen a picture of her before. In front of them was what could only be a young Wynonna holding a tiny baby – not olde than a month or two based on what Nicole could make of the picture. That baby had got to be Waverly.

“Mamma,” Waverly whispered, letting a finger brush across the face of her mother, before settling on herself.

Nicole pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “You’re very tiny, Waves,” she whispered, feeling her heart soar at the sight of her girlfriend as just a baby. There weren’t many pictures of the Earp sisters as kids, almost everything had been lost throughout the years, so this picture must be very special for Waverly and Wynonna. Nicole thought it was special to her, so she could only imagine what they had to be feeling.

Greta spoke up then, “That picture was taken after…” she trailed off, “After we were playing in the barn for a while. You guys came out of the kitchen and I remember thinking that something magical had happened, because there was just that feeling in the air, you know?”

Nicole shook her head when Greta looked expectantly at her. No, she really didn’t know.

“Magic always leaves a trace behind,” Greta continued to explain to them, “and I was always so good at feeling it, even when I was little.”

Wynonna grunted from across the room. “That’s all well and done, but what exactly does this mean?” She demanded to know. Nicole could feel how impatient she was getting, and that picture had sparked something in her; Nicole wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but she could feel Wynonna’s uneasiness clearly, even standing a great distance from her.

Greta motioned towards the picture in Waverly’s hands, “You can keep that,” she said, before turning to look at Wynonna again, getting back on track. “We came to see you because my mother had to help your mother with something. I know she said that she was going to see her friend, but it was clear to me that that wasn’t what it was all about,” she looked at Waverly then, shrugging her shoulders. “My mother never talked about Michelle Earp before or after, so clearly they weren’t friends at all, clearly – something else was going on,” she paused, “something magical.”

Shivering slightly, Nicole wasn’t sure if it was because of the fact that the barn was growing colder or because this story was growing longer. She had a bad feeling about this; she didn’t think that Waverly was going to like what Greta had to share with them, even if it perhaps was going to bring her closer to an explanation. “What kind of magic?” She heard herself question, as Waverly finally tugged the photograph into her big pocket and turned her attention back to Greta.

The Iron Witch spoke again. “I’m not sure, but I have a feeling that it wasn’t about Michelle,” she looked at Waverly then, “and not you either, because you were just a baby.”

“So it was about me then,” Wynonna clarified, spinning Peacemaker around her finger and trying to look like she had the situation entirely under control. Trying to look like it wasn’t bothering her the slightest.

Nodding, Greta continued on, “It’s the only thing that makes sense to me.”

“Nothing of this make sense,” Wynonna just interjected, and Nicole had to agree with her on that one. How did putting a magic spell on Wynonna have anything to do with Waverly?

Waverly was in deep thought, and it looked like she didn’t find these turn of events too far-fetched, so maybe it was going to make sense after all. Nicole knew that her girlfriend was smart, and perhaps there was a meaning to all of this anyway. “Wynonna says that she remembers me coming home from the hospital,” Waverly said then, her eyes locking onto Greta’s in an intense stare. “But I’m not my Mamma’s or my Daddy’s, which makes me think that perhaps I wasn’t brought home form the hospital after all,” she raised an eyebrow, clearly hoping that Greta was following her train of thoughts. Nicole had to admit that she herself was not entirely sure where that train was going though.

“She could have made that happen,” Greta whispered, turning to Wynonna then, her eyes wide and eager, like things were finally starting to add up. “She put a spell on you,” she whispered, crossing the room and stepping into Wynonna’s personal space, letting her eyes wander over Wynonna’s body as she studied her. “Your mother asked her to put a spell on you.”

Something weird flickered across Wynonna’s face. It went by so quickly that Nicole wasn’t sure if she had imagined it, but she was certain that Waverly hadn’t noticed a thing, because she appeared to be deep in thought, her front teeth digging into her lip in that adorable way that Nicole loved.

Wynonna’s voice was wavering a bit when she spoke up. “What kinda spell?” She demanded to know, regaining some of that control that she loved so much.

“An altering kind of spell,” Greta simply whispered, before turning on her heel and marching straight towards another box – this one was still open – and grabbing a book from the top of it. She immediately started flicking through it at warped speed.

Nicole could feel how eager Waverly was beside her; they were finally getting somewhere, figuring some things out, something that might help her with her quest for knowledge. Nicole didn’t bother to ask her if she was sure about this, if she really wanted to find this out; she had learned the hard way not to question Waverly’s motivations about this, and she wasn’t going to shield her from knowing the truth, not this time. Waverly deserved to know, so Nicole was just going to be there, right by her side, holding her hand. It had taken them so damn long to get to where they were at right now, to even take a slight step closer to figuring out what the deal was with Waverly’s past, and logically Nicole knew that it was because so many other things had happened, things that had seemed more pressing, but she couldn’t help but feel a little guilty about it anyway.

She promised right then and there, that she would make this her top priority. For Waverly’s sake and for her own. Sure, Bulshar was kind of important too, looming in the back of all of their minds, but it was clear that even Wynonna was ready to go down this path with Waverly, and so was Nicole. Bulshar or not.

“So what did she alter?” Nicole heard herself question.

Ignoring her, Greta kept flicking through the book, “I’m sure I can find a way to look past the alterations, to sort of, I don’t know, get a glimpse into what has been changed. I’m not sure I can lift the spell entirely,” she came to a stop on one of the pages, and Nicole had to bite her tongue to hide her annoyance with this woman; why did she always have to be so damn annoying and cryptic?

Waverly’s eyes were wide. “Did you find anything? A spell?” She wanted to know, crossing the room, leaving Nicole’s side, and stopping next to Greta to stare into the old book. Nicole felt her annoyance grow. “I trust you, Greta, I now you can lift the spell. You helped us before, and that was a million times worse.”

Greta placed a finger in the book, tapping the old pages lightly. “Maybe,” she whispered, her eyes meeting Waverly’s as the two women stood closely together. “This is old magic. Different. But I can try.”

Wynonna cleared her throat from across the room and reluctantly stuffed Peacemaker back into her boot. “I’m assuming I’ll have to participate in these shenanigans,” she simply stated, grabbing a box and placing it in the middle of the floor, between all of them. She took a seat on it and stared expectantly at her sister and the Iron Witch.

Waverly’s eyes were pleading with her sister for just a second while a silent communication went on between the two Earps; Nicole was sure that Wynonna was trying to convey her displeasure with this entire situation, while Waverly tried to convey the importance of this endeavour and how much it meant to her. Nicole had become quite adapt at reading their facial expressions, especially Waverly’s. “Thank you,” the youngest Earp finally whispered then, stepping across the room to her sister and pressing a light kiss to her cheek, before she found her place by Nicole’s side.

Nicole wrapped an arm around her. “So what are we gonna do?”

Greta closed the book, licking her lips and stepping across the room to Wynonna. She stared at the brunette, hand lingering just above her shoulder. “Do you trust me, Wynonna Earp?” She wanted to know then.

Wynonna glared up at her, a disbelieving look in her eyes. “Nope,” she replied, popping the ‘p’ and shifting slightly in her seat.

Stiffening, Greta continued. “You need to relax at least, if I have to do this,” she explained, before placing her hand on Wynonna’s shoulder and taking in a deep breath.

Nicole watched as Wynonna tried to relax her shoulders, breathing out and closing her eyes. Nicole herself had a hand on her gun, ready to pull it out the second Greta started acting strange. She felt Waverly’s excitement next to her, as they watched Greta humming to herself; her eyes were closed as well, as she calmed her breathing and tried to establish some sort of connection with Wynonna. Nicole had not witnessed a lot of spells or magic in her life, but there was always these sort of vibrations in the air; vibrations that she could feel even if the magic happening had nothing to do with her.

“Nimm das zurück was verändert wurde,” Greta begun, her hand lifting slowly off of Wynonna’s shoulder, shaking in the air, as a burst of small electricity erupted between them. “Lass uns sehen,” she continued, pausing, before her hand started shaking even more, and Nicole felt a tug behind her navel, pulling at her, drawing all of them closer into the magnetic alterations happening before them. “Die Änderungen die vorgenommen wurden” Greta continued on, and a wave of change hit Nicole in the face, and she knew she wasn’t the only one feeling it, because she heard Waverly gasp next to her, clutching onto her tighter.

Wynonna’s face was painted with lines; her lips were stretched small, as she sat stiff and rigid, letting the magic wash over her in waves. Her skin was growing paler, and her eyelids were fluttering, fighting to open, or to stay closed, Nicole wasn’t sure – but something was definitely happening.

“Lass uns sehen,” Greta repeated, “lass uns sehen. Lass uns sehen. Lass uns sehen.”

Suddenly Wynonna’s eyes snapped open, and she audibly gasped, just as Greta’s chanting came to a halt. Wynonna sat still for a second more, breathing rapidly, her blue eyes wide and round, before they turned slightly, gracing Nicole – who felt herself gape at the scene before her – before landing on Waverly, whose hand dropped from Nicole’s jacket as she took a tentative step closer to her sister.

“Fuck,” was all that came across Wynonna’s lips, as her eyes locked onto Waverly’s, mouth trembling.

Greta was pulled out of her trance-like state, taking a step away from the oldest Earp and catching her breath against a stack of boxes. Nicole didn’t have to ask either of them if the spell had worked, because it was pretty damn clear to her that something had dawned on Wynonna – something she had long ago forgotten – and that Greta had caught a glimpse of it as well.

Waverly’s voice was trembling as she spoke, “What? What happened, Wynonna, what did you see?”

Reaching a hand out to grab Waverly’s, Wynonna pulled her sister closer, and all Nicole could do was watch their exchange from a slight distance. Her hand was still ready on her gun, because she did not trust Greta, not in any way, so she was ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. Wynonna tugged Waverly close to her, wrapping her arms around the smaller girl’s midsection and resting her face against her fluffy, soft coat. Nicole could see that her blue eyes were shimmering with unshed tears.

“Wynonna,” Waverly breathed, carefully running her fingers through Wynonna’s curls, tangling them in there as she cared for her sister, “you’re scaring me.”

Mumbling into Waverly’s coat, Wynonna’s words were barely audible, and Nicole had to strain her ears to hear what she said. “I found you in the woods.”

There. It had been said. Nicole felt her eyes snap to her girlfriend, and she saw different emotions flickering across her beautiful face as realisation dawned on her; confusion, sorrow, happiness. Even acceptance. Wynonna had found Waverly in the woods. Nicole wasn’t sure what she had expected from Waverly’s past, but this definitely wasn’t it. Finding Waverly in the woods could mean so many things, and it felt like no step closer to actually figuring out who Waverly’s parents were.

Trembling, Waverly questioned, “The woods?”

“Behind the homestead,” Wynonna explained, pulling her head back and staring up at Waverly, still tugged into her midsection, holding her close. “I remember it so clearly right now. I was out exploring, because Daddy was practicing with Willa in the barn and Mamma had left to go do the shopping,” she continued, finally pulling away from Waverly’s body, but her eyes were still locked to her sister’s. “I was walking across the field in my nightgown and Willa’s rubber boots, when I heard…” she trailed off, confusion written across her face, “someone calling my name.”

“Your – your name?” Waverly was confused.

Wynonna nodded. “Yeah,” she said, “my name. Someone was calling to me, so I followed the voice into the woods, and there you were, sitting on top of a tree trunk in a blue blanket,” she trailed off once more, her voice, her eyes, growing softer as the story progressed and the memories seemed to overtake her. “So I took you home to Mamma, and she said that we had to keep you.”

Waverly drew in a shaky breath and Nicole finally felt like she had the right to push herself into the situation; she crossed the floor and wrapped an arm around her girlfriend, drawing her close and peppering her hair with small kisses. “Baby,” she whispered, burying her nose into Waverly’s brunette locks and letting her scent overtake her senses. Her heart swelled with sorrow and hurt for her girlfriend, because this was by no means the information that Waverly had hoped to find.

“And the note,” Greta’s voice finally rasped.

They all turned to look at her; it was clear that the spell had taken a lot out of her, she was still shaking slightly, looking pale, even if she had had a few moments to gather herself. Nicole was thankful that she had helped Waverly achieve this amount of information, but now she really just wanted the other woman to leave them the hell alone.

Waverly’s eyes found Wynonna’s once more, “A note?”

Nodding, Wynonna closed her eyes for a few seconds as she tried to recall the memory. “Yeah, there was a note, tugged into your blanket,” she explained, opening her eyes, and meeting Waverly’s in an intense lock. “It had my name on it, but that was all I could read. I was only six,” she finished.

“What happened to the note?” Nicole asked then. She was sure that it was pivotal to the story, to Waverly’s past – the note had to mean something, it had to hold some sort of information.

“Mamma read it,” Wynonna replied, licking her lips, “and then I don’t remember.”

Waverly’s face fell, and Nicole squeezed her closer for good measure. It couldn’t be easy, to be sort of close, yet so far away. It had to be frustrating for her, not knowing anything, yet now knowing that she had been found by her big sister in a blanket, and also knowing that it was not an accident, because Wynonna had clearly been meant to find her.

Greta stepped closer then, stuffing her hands into her pockets and speaking up. “Clearly the memory was altered by your mother’s request – so that Wynonna would distinctly remember you coming home from the hospital.”

“But why?” Waverly questioned, her green eyes flickering from side to side, as she mused things over, without a doubt trying to come up with an explanation inside of her head, something that would make sense. “Why lie about it? Why go through all that trouble?”

Huffing, Wynonna got off the box and stretched her back. She was clearly done with this situation. “Fuck if I know,” she simply commented, stuffing her hands into her pockets and falling to the balls of her feet, as her eyes darted around the room. Nicole couldn’t help but notice that she was acting a little weird. Uh, weirder than usual anyway.

Waverly licked her lips. “I really wish I could just ask Mamma,” she said then, her voice carrying itself softly throughout the barn, as she spoke the words in a soft whisper. “I really wish I knew where she was, why she even left,” she sighed.

“Me too, baby,” Nicole whispered, pulling Waverly into a full-on hug and letting her chin rest on top of her smaller girl’s head, as it so often would during their hugs. It was another thing she liked so much about how they fitted together; their height difference made Waverly’s body fit so nicely to hers, no matter which position they were placed in.

“Hm,” Wynonna mumbled, absentmindedly fiddling with the zipper of her leather jacket. Clearly she was trying not to look at them, which Nicole also found weird.

The redhead squinted her eyes at her girlfriend’s sister. Sure, she trusted Wynonna with all of her heart, how could she not after everything they had been through together, and how Wynonna had showed such tremendous trust in her by letting her arrange the chopper to escort Alice safely out of the Ghost River Triangle. But there was still something extremely odd about her behaviour right now, and Nicole didn’t like it. “What are you not telling us, Wynonna?” She asked then, her eyes meeting Wynonna’s.

Waverly turned back around then, leaving Nicole’s embrace and wiping a single tear off her cheek. “Huh?”

“Nothing,” Wynonna replied, shaking her head, but not daring to look up at Waverly, “Just nothing, Haught-pants, I’m good. Are we gonna get out of here or what?” She pointed with her thumb towards the barn door, finally raising her head to look at them. She had a forced smile on her lips. “I could really use a beer at Shorty’s.”

Waverly looked alarmed; Nicole could tell that she was also now noticing that Wynonna’s behaviour was a little strange at the moment. “Wynonna,” she warned then, taking a step towards her older sister. Her voice was not harsh, not threatening, but there was a definite tone in it, something authoritative, something that reminded Nicole of that time where she and Wynonna had gone to Pussy Willow’s and Waverly had driven around town for hours to find them and tell them off.

Brushing a piece of hair out of her eyes, Wynonna challenged her sister, “Waverly,” she said.

Crossing her arms, Waverly simply just needed to stare at her sister without a word. She raised an eyebrow, tapped a foot, and Nicole looked at Wynonna in panic. This was Scary Waverly, the Waverly that you had better not mess with. Thankfully she hadn’t dealt with her too many times during their relationship, and she knew that she was probably going to have to deal with her at some point in her life seeing as she planned on spending forever with the other woman – but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t frightening, and that Scary Waverly didn’t make Nicole wish for the ground to swallow her whole. Scary Waverly was a forced to be reckoned with.

Wynonna’s eyes met Nicole’s briefly, and the redhead made sure to convey to her sister-in-law that this situation was damn well serious, not that Wynonna needed to be reminded of that. The hotheaded brunette was frighteningly small beneath her sister’s firm glare.

“Wyn,” Nicole pleaded, faintly aware that they had an audience in the form of Greta who was not minding her own business at all, but rather obviously watching the exchange between the three women.

“Yeah okay,” Wynonna said then, finally crumbling beneath Waverly’s eyes, “I might, sorta, you know, have a, a little,” she held her fingers out to illustrate just how little, “little, tiny, tiny inkling as to where our mother might be,” she paused, before hurriedly adding, “Maybe. Perhaps.”

Once more Nicole felt her heart hammer hotly against her chest as her eyes turned wide, before they fell upon Waverly. Waverly, her sweet, beautiful baby, who at that moment – right there – seemed to get her heart broken. It happened so clearly to Nicole; there was no way of hiding it. Waverly’s faith in her sister, her trust, her belief in Wynonna, it was all crumbling down right then and there. Nicole could see it in her eyes, the way they portrayed nothing but betrayal, she could see it on her mouth, the way it started quivering slightly. And mostly – she could see it in the way Waverly took a step back, effectively putting some space between her and her sister.

“No,” she whispered, shaking her head. Tears started welling up in her eyes, and Nicole instinctively reached a hand out to touch her arm, but she shied away from it.

Wynonna’s face was one of sheer panic, something that did not happen very often with her. At least if she was panicked, she didn’t show it. “I’m really sorry!” She said, her voice already pleading with Waverly as she blinked rapidly. “Waves, I’m so sorry, she just, I,” she paused, and it was clear to Nicole that Wynonna had no idea what she was going to say, that she was just spewing out words, trying to make it better. “She didn’t want you to know, not yet, and I—”  
The look on Waverly’s face cut Wynonna off, and Nicole knew why. She had never seen Waverly look so completely and utterly shattered before. She looked tiny, in her giant coat and those insane boots with the pompoms, and Nicole’s heart broke for her girlfriend, knowing that Waverly had probably never felt so betrayed before. This was ten times worse than Wynonna leaving for three years or Nicole hiding the DNA-results in her bag. The youngest Earp shook her head at her sister, and Wynonna looked so broken as well, as Waverly whispered to her.

“Why does _everyone_ keep lying to me?”

Then she turned around on her heel and left the barn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for kudos, comments and reading, it’s greatly appreciated! It was so much fun writing Nicole’s point of view for this chapter - next chapter is through Waverly's eyes.
> 
> If anyone wants to know what the German spell is, this is the translation: 
> 
> Take back what was altered  
> Let us see  
> The changes that were made  
> Let us see  
> Let us see  
> Let us see  
> Let us see


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waverly needs to get away from stupid, stupid, just completely stupid Wynonna for a while, so she drives into the city in need of tequila and runs into an unexpected barkeep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At first you’re probably going to think that this means trouble for Wayhaught, but it really doesn’t. I promise, it will all be OK.

_**September 2017** _

_“Waverly Earp! Yes, Earp! You listen to me! You are one of the good guys. The best of us. And you are just as much a part of me as this baby is.”_

Waverly’s hands gripped the steering wheel tightly as Wynonna’s words replayed themselves in her head over and over. She knew that they were said in a vulnerable – and quite desperate – moment, as she held Rosita at gunpoint, but that they were true nonetheless, and that Wynonna had meant them; she was sure that Wynonna had meant them; that she was an Earp, that they were sisters, and that she was everything to Wynonna, a part of her.

But she had still lied to her, she had still kept something extremely important from her, even knowing how much finding out her past meant to Waverly. Even knowing how many tears she had shed because of it, Wynonna still kept it from her. Had she known where their mother was all along? Had she seen her, spoken to her, knowing that Waverly was desperate for answers?

The youngest Earp was really trying her best to talk herself down as she drove along the deserted road, but it was hard – the second she started convincing herself that Wynonna loved her and that there probably was a reasonable explanation to all of this, Waverly was reminded that she had also lied to her, and that this wasn’t the first time – nor would it probably be the last, she was starting to realise – that Wynonna did something to hurt her this way.

“Wynonna, you fucking shit-ticket,” Waverly cursed to the empty car, as tears of fury escaped from her eyes. Logically she knew that she probably shouldn’t be driving a car right now, seeing as the last few hours had been emotionally tiring, and that she had a hard time keeping her feelings in check. It helped, grabbing the steering wheel of her faithful jeep, because that way she kept her hands from shaking too much.

Oh, she could really use a shot of tequila right now. Or possibly five.

She didn’t even know where she was going, just that she needed to get the fuck away from Wynonna right now, and that thought had let her onto the road, driving towards the light of the city, out of Purgatory. She should probably have stayed longer, spoken to Wynonna, or at least spoken to Nicole, but she hadn’t been able to stay there.

Nicole had called her name repeatedly as she’d stormed out of Greta’s barn and jumped into her jeep. Nicole had pleaded her to stay, using her puppy dog eyes, using her sweet words, but Waverly hadn’t been able to control her feelings. She had rested her forehead on the steering wheel for only a second, letting her girlfriend catch up to her, before poking her head through the window of the jeep and placing a hand on Nicole’s pale cheek.

Her eyes had been so filled with worry, and Waverly had already felt the guilt starting to eat away at her, even if she hadn’t driven away yet. She’d pressed a short kiss to Nicole’s trembling lips, before promising her that she’d be back soon, telling the redhead not to worry, that she’d be okay.

And then she’d dropped her hands from Nicole’s face and speeded away from there.

The night air was freezing on her face, but it was welcoming, because the tears were still burning hotly in her eyes, completely out of her control. She hated pitying herself, pitying her life and how she ended up in this messed up family of all things, but sometimes she simply couldn’t help it.

How the fuck did she deserve growing up being lied to? How the fuck did she deserve being blatantly bullied by her oldest sister, only to have another sister just up and leave her? How the fuck did she deserve to have a mother who bailed on them, and a father who drank and got killed? How did she deserve growing up feeling so utterly and completely unloved from the day she was born? Waverly hated it, but right now she was pitying herself so damn much.

Her phone kept vibrating in the passenger seat next to her; she’d turned it on silent a long time ago, trying her best to ignore Wynonna’s calls and texts. Nicole had probably tried to reach her as well, wanting to know where she was going, and Waverly knew that her girlfriend deserved to know these things – and she was going to know, later, when Waverly wasn’t feeling all of the emotions at once. Nicole knew that she was safe, and that she had promised to be back, and that had to be enough for now.

What Waverly just didn’t understand was how Wynonna could continue to lie to her that way. It was simply just amazing to her, that her older sister kept telling her lies – for whatever reason Wynonna chose to lie, Waverly just never thought that it was okay. She had been so sure that they were beyond that, that they had moved past all those lies of their childhoods and earlier years. They were good now, they’d been through so much together in the last year, and Waverly felt a betrayal stronger than she’d ever felt before.

Not only did she have to deal with the fact that her mamma had lied to her, that her father had hated her, that Willa had always despised her – she’d have to deal with the fact that Wynonna had now lied to her as well. Wynonna, who had always been her safe space during childhood; who’d sneak into Waverly’s room to tell her stories, hold her when the nightmares took over, and promise her that everything would be alright. It was just baffling to Waverly, how Wynonna could keep something so important away from her.

Who knew how long she had been in contact with their mother? Who knew how much Michelle knew about their lives, about what was happening in Purgatory? Oh God, Waverly realised, maybe Michelle had even been in Purgatory this entire time.

Waverly felt the knot in her stomach tie itself even stronger, and another wave of anger rushed through her. Why was she being played the fool all the damn time?! Why was everybody hiding things from her, telling her lies? Did everybody just think that she was that gullible, that naive?

Shaking her head to herself, another fresh wave of tears started pouring out of her eyes, and Waverly drove onto the asphalted road – the city was getting closer, and there were more cars on the road now. She wasn’t even sure what her plan was, she’d just have to find one of the bars that she had gone to with Stephanie, Chrissy and the others every once in a while, when they needed a night of fun away from Purgatory’s small selection of guys.

It was so embarrassing to think that everybody in her life took her for a fool, someone who’d believe everything and anything they shot her way. Even her own sister.

‘But not Nicole,’ Waverly thought to herself, angrily wiping her cheeks with the back of one hand, while steering the car with the other, ‘Never my sweet Nicole.’

She was just so fucking furious with Wynonna right now. She felt like screaming at the top of her lungs, same as she felt like firing her shotgun off at something shaped like her sister, just to get it all out. Fucking stupid Wynonna, and her stupid (wrong) decisions. Why did she always have to make wrong decisions?

_“Sure you've done dumb stuff, but you’re my sister and I'll always forgive you.”_

Oh, how Waverly had meant those words when she had spoken them to Wynonna earlier in the year. It was right as the barber was getting ready to slice her throat, and Wynonna had realised that the person she’d hurt the most was Waverly – it was always Waverly – perhaps because she was also the person who meant the most to her sister. Logically, Waverly knew that she was the person in the world that Wynonna cared most about, perhaps just behind Alice, but that didn’t mean that Wynonna always made the right decisions. Even if her wrong decisions were probably made out of love.

Waverly just wasn’t sure if she could so easily forgive Wynonna for this. Of course she knew that she would – she always would. It wasn’t a matter of if, but a matter of when. It just hurt so damn much, and she was going to have to work through that; on her own, and with Wynonna. And they were going to have to talk. A lot. But forgiveness was coming, Waverly knew herself well enough to know that.

Reaching her right hand out to look into the glove compartment, Waverly rummaged through it in search for her spare make-up bag, whilst keeping an eye on the road. She could see herself in the rear-view mirror, and her make-up was smudged, ruined from all the crying, and she had to fix herself up before setting foot in any bars. She’d probably have to redo her braid as well, but that should be okay. She found her bag and pulled it out, dumping it on the seat next to her phone. It was stupid, but she turned it over then, taking a quick glance at the screen, as she took a right turn and drove down a smaller road, to one of the bars that she remembered coming to. She remembered it specifically, because Chrissy had hooked up with some guy in the bathroom and urged Waverly to make out with his friend. Of course Waverly had been with Champ at that time, and even knowing how he was straying on her, she’d kept it in her pants and kept to drinking her amaretto and cokes.

‘14 missed calls,’ Waverly thought, as she looked at the screen. Most of them were from Wynonna, but there were a few from Nicole and a couple of texts as well. It was okay though, right? She had a right to have a night to herself, especially when she had been mature about it and told Nicole not to worry. She wasn’t going to have a repeat of last time, when she’d been angry and stupid, and Nicole had spent a better part of her days crying (this she had revealed to Waverly after), while she herself had gone to a fancy spa and kissed Rosita.

Her and Nicole were good now, and she could most certainly take a night to herself without feeling guilty about that. Especially when her sister was being a jerk.

Waverly drove into an open spot not far from the bar she wanted to go to. She turned the engine off and sat stiffly for a second, getting her bearings, before reaching for her make-up bag. Twisting the rear-view mirror so she could see herself clearly, she opened the bag and started rummaging through it. She wasn’t going to do the whole shebang, just fix the mascara stains and try to hide the red splotches on her cheeks. Maybe even a little bit of lip-gloss, just to feel better about herself.

She got to working; going through the motions of fixing her face almost robotically. Normally she had fun doing her make-up and making herself look prettier, especially when she was getting ready to go on a date with Nicole, but right now she just needed to get it done as quickly as possible. She pulled out her hairdo then, brushing her fingers through the strands, trying to comb it out, before flipping her hair over her right shoulder and braiding it almost on instinct.

There. She checked herself in the mirror once more, satisfied with her appearance after the day she’d had, and reached for her bag and phone. It should do her good with some tequila for sure. She unlocked her phone and opened the messages from Nicole, also known as Officer Dimples in her contacts, as she jumped out of her jeep and locked the door.

_(07:57PM) Officer Dimples: Waves, we’re worried about you. Wynonna really wants to talk to you._

_(08:25PM) Officer Dimples: Waverly… I know she fucked up, but please pick up the phone. We all need to talk about this._

_(08:48PM) Officer Dimples: You know what, forget that. I’m sorry._

_(08:49PM) Officer Dimples: You don’t have to answer._

_(08:55PM) Officer Dimples: Do what you gotta do, baby. Please just promise me not to drive drunk. Just call and I’ll come get you. Anytime, anywhere. I love you._

Waverly smiled to herself as she leaned her back against the jeep. How was Nicole so fucking perfect? She hadn’t really thought about how she was going to get home or where she’d go from there, and now she felt quite certain that she was going to call her amazing girlfriend and Nicole would come get her, and she’d fall asleep safely in her arms later. Nicole probably even had work tomorrow, but Waverly knew that the redhead wouldn’t want her to do anything else but call her, even if that meant she’d be shit-tired all day.

The brunette quickly typed a reply to her girlfriend, ignoring all of Wynonna’s attempts to contact her.

_(09:07PM) Waverly: I love you too, my best baby._

Throwing her phone into her purse, Waverly turned towards the bar and strode purposefully down the street. She could hear tequila calling her name, and she felt like tonight they were going to have a particularly long conversation.

There wasn’t many people inside the bar, and that was perfectly fine with Waverly, because if she was going to sit and wallow, she would rather do it by her lonesome. The place was small, filled with cigarette smoke, and she let the door fall shut behind her, eyes settled determinedly on her goal: the bar. She crossed the room in her fluffy boots, before jumping onto the bar stool and setting her purse on the desk in front of her.

“Barkeep,” she mumbled, eyes settling on the rear of a bent down figure, who was rummaging through some cabinets across from her. “Hit me with a shot of tequila,” she finished, finding those particular legs a bit familiar.

The barkeep turned around and shot off of the floor as soon as the word ‘tequila’ had left Waverly’s lips, and the young Earp came face to face with none other than Rosita Bustillos.

Waverly let out a small squeak as she felt her eyes go wide. Staring into those familiar brown eyes, she couldn’t say anything, just gape openmouthedly at the other woman, whose eyes were firmly locked to hers. She didn’t say anything either, just stood there, with her messy bun and a top with a distracting amount of cleavage, looking beautiful as ever.

Not removing her eyes from Waverly’s, a nervous smile played across her lips, as she blindly reached a hand to her left. With few quick, smooth movements, Rosita had turned over a glass, grabbed a bottle of tequila and flipped a stream of liquid into the glass. A glass now sitting directly in front of Waverly on the desk of the bar.

Waverly’s eyes didn’t leave Rosita’s as she clearly remembered what had happened the last time the two of them had seen each other. She huffed out a breath of air before she grabbed the glass, craned back her neck and let the contents down her throat. Wincing at the burn, she slammed the glass back onto the bar and simply said, “Hit me again.”

The smile on Rosita’s face grew a little wider as she filled the glass once more, before grabbing another glass and pouring one for herself as well. Waverly finally dared remove her eyes from the brown ones across the bar, as they clinked their shots together and both downed them.

This totally wasn’t what Waverly had expected when she entered this bar, but she probably shouldn’t be too surprised that Rosita had continued her job as a barmaid, after all, she had come to take quite a liking to it during her time at Shorty’s. However, Waverly wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about seeing Rosita right there, directly in front of her, like, right on the other side of the bar, because – because the last time they had seen each other, Rosita had whacked her in the head, tried to steal Alice, and Waverly had responded to those actions by firing Peacemaker directly at her. Not that anything had happened, because Peacemaker only responded to the heir, and even if she wasn’t half revenant, it had still not listened to her.

Rosita swept a piece of her hair away from her face and leaned her elbows on the bar, resting her face in her hands. Her eyes scanned Waverly’s face and she had a slightly nervous expression in her eyes.

“So,” Waverly said then, nervously letting her eyes onto the shiny surface of the bar, before landing on Rosita again, “Uuuh, how have you, uh, been?” She nervously stammered out, shifting slightly on her barstool, eyes wavering to the side before landing back on Rosita once more.

Grinning, Rosita looked relieved that Waverly wasn’t yelling at her, pulling out a gun on her, or running for the hills. “I’ve been, uh, good,” she replied then, tilting her head slightly to the side, her brown eyes shimmering. “Still a revenant,” she added with a grimace, dropping one hand to the bar and tapping it lightly.

Waverly also remembered that Rosita had so beautifully clarified that she liked her a lot. You know, before Waverly had attempted to send her to hell.

“You?” Rosita added, raising a perfectly plucked eyebrow.

Huffing out air, Waverly motioned with a tiny nod towards the tequila, and as Rosita picked up the bottle once more, moving to pour the alcohol into their glasses, Waverly decided that she might as well talk to her. “You know, uh, _not_ so good,” she whispered. She was already feeling the hit of the prior shots of tequila, and now Rosita was pouring her another one, and it felt damn good.

Rosita placed the bottle on the bar, and a look of true concern swept over her face. “Are you and Nicole fighting again?”

“No!” Waverly immediately replied, because if one thing was going good in her life right now, it was definitely her relationship with Nicole. “No, Nicole and I, we’re, we’re good,” she said, taking up her glass and raising it with a look to Rosita, before downing that one as well. It burned so nice and good down her throat, yet Waverly felt herself coughing.

“Whoa,” Rosita said, placing the shot on the bar, still brimming with liquid, and reaching a hand across the desk to gently touch Waverly’s shoulder. “Maybe you should slow down, Waves.”

Dropping her head to the cold surface of the bar, Waverly rested her cheek there. “Fudge-nuggets,” she whispered.

Chuckling, Rosita leaned her head back down, resting it against the surface of the bar as well, her face mere centimetres from Waverly’s face. “So, not Nicole,” she whispered, eyelids fluttering gently across her cheeks. “Wynonna?”

Waverly sighed. “Wynonna is right, she just,” she breathed out heavily, “Apparently she’s just been lying to me for a long ass time.”

Rosita squinted her eyes together. “Lying?”

“Apparently she’s been in contact with our mother,” Waverly explained then, once more thankful for the fact that the place was relatively empty tonight, and that it seemed like Rosita had time to stand there and serve her plenty of tequila. She’d missed this. “She hasn’t told me shit, and I just found out today, and I’m mad at her.”

Raising her head from the bar, Rosita grabbed the bottle once more. “You’re gonna need some more of this,” she said then, pouring the alcohol. Earlier statement about slowing down was clearly forgotten.

Pulling herself off the bar, Waverly smiled sheepishly at the other woman. “She can just really piss me off, you know?” She said, grabbing the glass from the table and clinking it to Rosita’s. “Cheers.”

Rosita made a face as the swallowed the alcohol. “Wynonna can piss everybody off. It’s kinda her special skill, eh?”

Waverly noticed the distinct sound of bitterness in her voice, and of course she couldn’t blame her. Even if Doc had promised Rosita protection – protection from Wynonna – the heir had responded to that action by promising Rosita to ‘shoot her last’. What was that even about? Waverly couldn’t blame her for being miffed about that. Rosita had done so much for them; saved Dolls, bartendered at Shorty’s, saved her from Tucker, let Jeremy experiment on her with burning poison to save Nicole’s life. Waverly was going to be eternally grateful to her for that, even if she’d also done a one-eighty and turned on them.

“I guess it’s just hard for her,” Rosita continued on then, running a dish towel over the shiny surface of the bar to gather up spilled droplets of tequila. “You know, you’re her sister, she loves you. Everyone can see that you’re, like, the most important thing to her. She probably just lied because she thought it would be best for you.”

“See,” Waverly replied, shaking her head, and motioning towards the beer tap a little further down the bar, “I know you’re right. Can I get one of those?” She added, and Rosita immediately moved to pour her one. “But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be miffed, right? She kept it from me.”

Rosita took about a minute; pouring her beer, and tapping her foot as Waverly watched her. Turning back to the younger girl, Rosita slammed the jug of beer onto the bar and shrugged. “You just went from pissed to miffed – maybe you’re already feeling better.”

“Maybe I need more tequila,” Waverly replied, before taking a long gulp of the beer.

Rosita chuckled. “Or maybe you’re actually not that mad, but maybe,” she paused, seemingly pondering it over for a few seconds, “you’re just really hurt?” She finished, but poured her another shot just the same.

Why did Rosita have to be so smart? Waverly didn’t need smart right now, she needed more alcohol. But of course, she was talking to a women who had several university degrees under her belt. “I have the right to be though?” She questioned, sipping her beer, and resting her elbow on the bar. “Right?”

Nodding, Rosita replied, “Sure, you can be as angry and as hurt as you want. It was a shitty move.”

“Yeah,” Waverly replied.

“So,” Rosita said then, as an awkward silence sort of erupted between then. “I tried to hurt you, I guess?”

They probably had to talk about this, even if it didn’t exactly translate into a lovely conversation. “And I tried to shoot you,” Waverly replied, bopping her head a bit.

Rosita said, “Yeah.”

“Yeah,” Waverly echoed.

The silence stretched between them for a few seconds more, before the barkeep broke it. “Good times,” she whispered, eyes meeting Waverly’s.

The youngest Earp couldn’t stop herself from giggling, and she lifted her beer to her lips. She could feel her eyes shimmering, and Rosita looked relieved that they had gotten that out of the way. Waverly wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Seriously though, what should I do about Wynonna?”

“You know what I think?” Rosita questioned then, pouring Waverly even more tequila, “I think that Wynonna is your family – and, and family is important. I mean, they might fuck you over and make terrible decisions, but if it’s family, and by family I sure as fuck don’t always mean the blood-related kind, but – but if it’s family, you should always try to talk about the things that make you sad.”

Reaching a hand across the bar to gently clasp over Rosita’s, Waverly almost slipped off the bar stool. She was having a bit of trouble controlling her body at the moment, and it appeared to amuse Rosita. “Oh shit,” she whispered, eyes going wide. “I’m sorry, I sometimes forget that your family isn’t around.”

Rosita pretended to be cool about it. “It’s okay, they died a long time ago,” she said, withdrawing her hand from Waverly’s grasp and shifting slightly on her feet.

“Rosie…” Waverly begun, but Rosita waved her off.

“That’s not even it,” she said, lips a thin line, and eyes moving over Waverly’s face as she looked at her, “I just – being with you guys, back in Purgatory, working at Shorty’s,” she paused, audibly swallowing, “even if I knew why I was there, because Doc had promised to protect me as long as possible, it still felt so damn good, because you guys,” she sighed heavily before adding, “most of you guys anyway – you accepted me. At least I know that you and Nicole, and even Jeremy tried to include me in your group and for the first time in a long while I just… I really felt like I was a part of something.”

Waverly wasn’t sure what to say to that. Maybe it was because she was a little tipsy, but Rosita’s story really tugged at her heartstrings; it couldn’t be easy for Rosita, she had to feel alone a lot of the time, especially because she wasn’t a part of all the things that most of the other revenants did out in Purgatory. She’d just been minding her own business, getting her degrees and tending to bars. But maybe it had felt nice for her to be a part of something, to be included. And even if it was partly her own fault, she’d just lost all of that the night Alice was born.

“Rosie, I’m really sorry,” Waverly just rasped, her green eyes meeting Rosita’s brown ones.

“It’s really not your fault,” Rosita replied, shrugging her shoulders. “I knew which way it had to go, and I could’ve, you know, _not_ tried to steal Alice,” she paused. “So yeah.”

Waverly grabbed her shot of tequila and poured it into her mouth. Hitting the glass onto the bar, she decided it was better for them to move on from this part of their conversation. “Hit me one more time,” she said.

Grinning, Rosita did just that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah. Rosita, eh? I have to admit, I added this chapter for two reasons. One being I wanted to explore Waverly’s feelings and her character and just what she’s thinking about this entire thing, and two being I just really like Rosita as a character. There’s just so many interesting layers to her, especially after how she acted in the finale episode, which for me is not just so black and white. I’d like to hear what you guys think though! 
> 
> Next chapter will be Nicole’s point of view again, because apparently I just really like writing that. It was supposed to be Wynonna’s but I changed it. And uh, also Jeremy will be there.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Earps don’t really get hangovers, so Waverly wakes up the morning after to a kitchen full of people, a sweet girlfriend and a surprising turn of events.

_**September 2017** _

Nicole watched Waverly stir beside her in the bed. Her hair was mussed from sleeping and her night of drinking plenty of tequila, and she was tangled up in her four blankets, toes on her left foot sticking out from beneath. Her eyes fluttered, and Nicole couldn’t help but gaze lovingly down at her girlfriend from where she was sitting, back against the wall, legs popped up, reading some files for work.

She had coffee, water and painkillers ready on the nightstand; things she had tiptoed downstairs to pick up earlier, before Wynonna woke up. Perhaps Waverly wasn’t going to have much of a hangover, she was an Earp after all, but it was nice to be sure. Plus, she’d really needed her own cup of coffee after the trip back and forth to the city last night.

Waverly’s jeep was still there, and it was going to be, until she could ask Dolls and Doc to pick it up, but that was a problem for another time. Especially when Nicole knew how much Waverly had had to be hurting yesterday to drive away from Purgatory like that (and leave her and Wynonna stranded in the middle of nowhere with frigging _Greta_ ). Nicole understood though, and she didn’t blame her girlfriend, she was just happy that Waverly was home now so that they could all deal with this new and important information.

Eyes fluttering open, Waverly met Nicole’s gaze. She looked tired as hell, like she’d been drinking all night long, and her mascara was smudged, lipgloss smeared across her cheeks. Nicole couldn’t help but find her beautiful anyway; she was pretty sure that Waverly would always look beautiful to her, no matter when or how.

“‘Morning,” Nicole whispered, reaching to the nightstand to pour a cup of coffee from the thermos. She placed her files on the floor, and watched as Waverly’s eyes got used to the light in her bedroom.

The brunette rubbed her eyes. “How did I get here?” She squeaked, carefully pulling herself into an upright position in the bed. She accepted the coffee from her girlfriend with a grateful smile.

Nicole raised an eyebrow. “ _Rosita_ called me from your phone,” she explained, and when Waverly’s eyes widened, she nodded, “Yeah. Uhh, she said that you were drunk out of your mind and that she wanted to make sure that you were safe,” Nicole continued to tell, taking a sip of her own coffee, her eyes never leaving Waverly’s face. She wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about that particular part of Waverly’s evening, especially after everything that had happened, but she trusted Waverly’s judgment.

Waverly gulped down about half of her coffee before answering. “Yeah, I uh, sorta… ran into her last night. Wasn’t planned or anything,” she quickly added, probably trying to assure Nicole, even though she really didn’t need to.

The redhead wasn’t worried though, not _that much_ , so she simply tried to hold back her smile. “It’s okay, Waves, I’m just glad she still cared enough about you to make sure.”

Nodding, Waverly replied, “I always liked Rosie,” she whispered.

Clearing her throat, Nicole continued. “Yeah, so I went into the city and got you,” she nodded and reached for the painkillers and the water on the nightstand, holding them out for Waverly to take.

She smiled gratefully and popped the pills into her mouth, before gulping down the entire glass of water. “Thanks,” she whispered, eyes wavering a bit.

Nicole watched her for a few seconds then, as she rearranged herself on the bed to sit more comfortable, pulling her hair out of a braid that was practically undone, before tying it in a messy bun on top of her head instead. She juggled her coffee between her legs, and Nicole was once more struck with how much affection she held for the younger woman sitting next to her in the bed. The silence was killing her though, and she really needed to make sure that Waverly was feeling better.

“So,” she whispered, warming her hands on her coffee cup, enjoying the fresh smell of it, “how are you?”

Waverly seemed to think about it for a few seconds. “You know what,” she said then, nodding her head, “I’m okay. I’m okay, I think, I mean, I just,” she stumbled across the words, “I needed go be away from Wynonna yesterday, and I drank so much _tequila_ ,” she grinned sheepishly at Nicole, her green eyes glistening in the light streaming in through the window, “And it was good, yeah? Now I think we just all need to talk.”

“Talking is good,” Nicole whispered as she reached a hand out to touch Waverly’s knee through the layer of blankets. “Wynonna was a mess yesterday, by the way.”

“A hot mess?” Waverly gingerly joked, raising an eyebrow.

Nicole hummed. “Yeah, she, she was pissed too, because you left us with Greta, but we called Dolls, so it’s all good,” she squeezed her fingers together, “And then she just sorta, you know, went all Wynonna and started drinking whiskey and shooting things.”

Placing her head in her hands, Waverly sighed. “I feel like a jerk,” she whispered, eyes not meeting Nicole’s, “I mean, at some level I know that I was in my entire right to be mad and leave, but I still didn’t give her a chance to explain, you know?”

“I do know,” Nicole whispered as she reached a hand out and gently lifted Waverly’s head upwards, so that their eyes could meet once more. She couldn’t exactly say that she knew how Waverly was feeling, but she did know her girlfriend, and even if Waverly was feeling bad, she was also Waverly, and therefore she would also feel guilty, because she was the sweetest person Nicole had ever met. “But Waves,” she added, brown eyes staring lovingly into green ones, “you were right to be mad. And I think that Wynonna understands that. You just need to talk.”

Waverly nodded and silently took a few more sips of her coffee.

Nicole turned her wrist over to check the time. Waverly had slept a bit longer than she had anticipated, but it was okay – everyone was probably going to be hanging around downstairs, drinking coffee and discussing work. Even Jeremy had been invited, Nicole had made sure of that, because she knew that it was important for Waverly that he felt included in everything that went on with them. Wynonna hadn’t been too pleased with Nicole’s initial plan to let Waverly set the phase this morning, but if Nicole hadn’t put her foot down, Wynonna would have barged into Waverly’s room the second she woke up and the youngest Earp wouldn’t have had time to gather her thoughts and get her bearings.

It was the ever-going discussion between herself and Wynonna, and Nicole was starting to realise that she might as well get used to it. Her and Wynonna were so different, and even if they cared about each other immensely, the thing they had most in common was Waverly and their love for her, and the thing they would mostly disagree on was Waverly and what was best for her. It was probably going to be like that forever, seeing as Wynonna was a protective older sister, and Nicole herself was a protective girlfriend. Not that Waverly couldn’t protect herself, because she had damn well proved that she could.

“So Waves,” Nicole said than, effectively snapping Waverly out of whatever thought she was having, “I don’t want to alarm you, but I think that the guys are probably waiting for you downstairs,” she finished, trying to read the look on Waverly’s face as her words settled in.

Waverly squinted her eyebrows together in an adorable display of confusion. “The – the guys?” She questioned.

Nicole nodded. “I think that we should probably talk about these things as a group, because it is related to everything going on here. Dolls said that he definitely wanted to be a part of it,” she added, hoping with all of her heart that she’d made the right move in this situation.

Pushing the blankets out of the way, Waverly handed Nicole her empty mug of coffee and crawled out of bed. She shivered when her bare feet hit the floor. “Let me just get cleaned up and into a fresh set of clothes, and we can go downstairs, OK?” She questioned, awkwardly shifting from foot to foot in nothing but her underwear and one of Nicole’s old police academy t-shirts.

“Sure thing, Waves,” Nicole replied, her eyes gazing over long, tan legs as she appreciated the view of her girlfriend. Waverly cleared her throat, and Nicole’s eyes shot up to meet Waverly’s as she sheepishly grinned, “I love you, babe,” she added, eyes twinkling.

Waverly couldn’t hide her smile as she muttered, “Love you too,” and went in search for something to wear in her giant closet.

Nicole tuned her girlfriend out while she got ready, and instead dove into the file that she and Dolls had tried to gather on Bulshar. He had stayed frighteningly silent and out of sight since his resurrection; Nicole wasn’t sure what he was planning, but it had to be something big, because he had made no noise whatsoever. Even the fact that he had none of his wives left had caused him to lash out, and Dolls had been so certain that he would be coming after the Earp Heir the second he had the possibility. It had been a month now, and sure, a month wasn’t that long, but everything moved so fast in Purgatory, so it sure as hell felt like he should have made some kind of move at this point.

She was pulled out of work-mode by a pillow hitting her in the face.

“Hey!” She exclaimed, pushing her papers away and glaring at Waverly in mock offence.

Her girlfriend giggled from where she was leaning against the open doorway. “Well, I tried saying your name, but you weren’t listening, so what’s a girl to do?”

Nicole squinted her eyes together as she climbed out of bed. “You didn’t say my name,” she breathed, stepping closer to Waverly and stretching out her long legs after hours consumed by the softness of the mattress. She felt her heart hammer in her chest.

Acting innocent, Waverly replied, “Well, in my head I did,” she whispered, and then she squealed loudly as Nicole closed the distance between them and engulfed her in a giant hug. She wrapped her arms tightly around her giggling girlfriend, and buried her face in the crook of her neck, as Waverly’s legs wrapped themselves around her middle. The brunette smelled more like herself; the deodorant she always wore with the distinct scent of her skin, but it was still mixed with the smell of tequila burning in Nicole’s nostrils.

“Are you ready?” She whispered, her lips brushing the skin on Waverly’s neck.

Humming, Waverly jumped off of Nicole, and she laced their fingers together, before she made her way down the hallway towards the stairs. There was a distant sound of talking coming from the kitchen, and Nicole couldn’t hide her grin when she realised that Jeremy was the one doing most of the talking; it sounded like he was going a mile a minute, and Nicole could barely make out the sound of Dolls grunting in response. Wynonna couldn’t be heard, but Nicole was pretty sure that she was already up if both Dolls and Jeremy were in the kitchen.

Three sets of eyes met them as they stepped into the kitchen. Jeremy was caught mid-sentence but he closed his mouth, when his eyes met Nicole’s. The redhead gave Waverly’s hand a tight squeeze, as Wynonna’s blue gaze settled onto the youngest Earp, eyes pleading instantly. She shifted on her chair, dropping her mug of coffee onto the table.

“Baby girl,” she whispered.

Waverly sighed heavily as she dropped Nicole’s hand and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I’m ready to talk,” she said then, as Nicole moved across the floor and leaned against the kitchen counter that Jeremy was sitting on top of. Dolls was sitting on a chair by the table, nursing a cup of black coffee.

Wynonna looked relieved that Waverly wasn’t yelling at her. “Sure. Yeah,” she said, eyes following her sister, as she took a seat on a spare chair. “Whatever you want, Waves.”

Waverly gave her sister a suspicious look as she dropped onto a chair by the table and replied. “Do you just know where she is, or have you actually seen her? Spoken to her?” Waverly questioned then, even though Nicole knew that Waverly was certain that Wynonna had spent time with their mother. It had just been evident in the way everything had gone down yesterday.

Brushing a stray curl out of her face, Wynonna replied instantly. “I know where she is.”

Nicole watched Waverly bite her lip as she mused Wynonna’s reply over, and the redhead turned to fill her girlfriend a mug of coffee from the ever-brewing machine on the kitchen counter. She could hear Waverly reply to her sister. “Of course you do,” she whispered. There wasn’t any malice in her voice, just pure realisation. She sighed as Nicole placed a coffee in front of her and smiled sweetly at her, “Thank you, baby,” she whispered.

The redhead retreated to her place at the counter, and she could feel Wynonna’s eyes digging into her back. When she turned around, the brunette still had her eyes on her, and Nicole gave her a small, reassuring nod, hoping to convey to Wynonna that it was safe to go on, and that Waverly actually was ready to talk and not just saying it to please her.

Wynonna turned her eyes back to her sister. “I swear, Waves, I’m like, hella sorry that I kept this from you, but Mamma said that we had to and that it was important, I didn’t know why, and she wasn’t gonna tell me, so I just kept quiet.”

“Even though you knew that talking to her could answer a lot of questions for me,” Waverly stated then, lifting the coffee to her mouth and meeting Wynonna’s eyes above the mug.

The oldest Earp shrugged. “I know that, but now I guess that it makes a whole lot of sense why she didn’t want you to know,” she said, and when the other four people in the room looked at her in confusion, she hurriedly added, “You know, because she had lied to the both of us and put a spell on me and therefore couldn’t tell you how you really came into our family.”

Waverly placed her mug on the table and said, “I know that, and that’s not even it,” she replied, hands settling nervously on the table top, “I’m not even that mad at her, I’m just really,” she paused, “I’m just really hurt by you. I thought we weren’t gonna lie to each other anymore.”

Scrambling out of her chair, Wynonna grabbed the one next to Waverly and pulled it closer to her, only so she could wrap an arm around her sister’s back. “I know, I know, baby girl,” she whispered, words barely audible to Nicole, who somehow also felt that this was a private moment between the two sisters. She turned around against the counter and busied herself by staring out the kitchen window. She could still hear everything going on around her though.

Waverly was sniffling into the sideways hug that Wynonna was giving her. “It’s just that you’re my only family, and I love you, and I’d hoped that we were beyond the lies and that we had trust in each other, and, and…” she was cut off by Wynonna’s reassuring murmurs of ‘I know, I know’, as she pulled them even closer to each other, arms tightly wound, lips pressed to cheeks and love shared between the two of them, and Nicole’s heart was beating wildly for them in her chest, because if anyone deserved love, deserved each other, it was Waverly and Wynonna.

“I promise,” Wynonna whispered, pressing a kiss to Waverly’s hair, still engulfing her in a tight hug, “no more lies, OK? We’re gonna be honest, and I’ll share _all_ my horrible secrets with you,” she promised. “Please, please, please just say you can forgive me, because I can’t have you being mad at me, you’re the most important person in my life.”

The youngest Earp laughed lowly through her tears and Nicole turned her eyes towards them again, as the two sisters separated. “You’re forgiven, OK?” Waverly said then. Her tone was serious, and there was not a doubt in anyone’s mind that she meant it. “You’re _always_ forgiven, Wynonna.”

Wynonna looked like Waverly had just given her the world, and she pressed yet another kiss to the side of Waverly’s head, before she turned to stare at Dolls. “Are you gonna get out the whiskey, or what? I need something to wash all of these emotions down with.”

Dolls nodded and made his way into the living room, knowing where Wynonna and Waverly stored all their booze, and Jeremy fiddled with a rubber band from the kitchen counter, while Nicole watched her girlfriend with careful eyes. Sure, she’d forgiven Wynonna and that was good, but weren’t they going to talk about Waverly meeting their mother then? Going to talk about the other things that they had learned yesterday at Greta’s? And where was Doc even at?

Nicole hooked her thumbs into her belt. “Where’s Doc?” She questioned, partly because she wanted to know, partly because she wanted to break the sudden silence.

Dolls appeared in the kitchen again, placing a bottle of whiskey on the kitchen table in front of Wynonna. She immediately poured a shot of it into her coffee.

Jeremy said, “Dolls and I drove him into town to pick up Waverly’s jeep, and then we went back here, so that Doc could drive the jeep out and pick up-”

“Jeremy,” Wynonna warned then, eyes shooting lightenings from across the room.

Groaning, Jeremy bent his head. “Yeah, yeah, shut up, Jeremy,” he whispered, and Nicole almost felt bad for the guy, because he had been so eager to share Doc’s whereabouts.

Dolls took a seat on one of the spare chairs around the table. “So Wynonna, have you remembered anything else about that day you found Waverly?”

Waverly’s eyes met Wynonna’s. “You told him?”

“Baby girl, I told everybody,” Wynonna simply replied, but she squeezed Waverly’s arm just the same. Then she turned to look at Dolls and shrugged her shoulders. “No, nothing’s come to me. All I remember is,” she held up her fingers as she started listing things, “rubber boots, someone calling my name, woods, baby in a blanket, and uhm,” she paused, recalling the last things, “letter with my name on it, and going back to Mamma.”

Waverly took another sip of her coffee; she seemed calmer now, better. More ready to talk about everything without crying or getting mad. She was simply just there. “What I don’t understand is that someone was calling for you and that letter had your name on it – that means someone wanted for you to find me,” she reasoned, humming to herself.

“Maybe because they knew that Wynonna would take care of you?” Jeremy suggested, never one to shut up for long, even when he was asked to.

Nicole thought that that sounded reasonable though, it wasn’t difficult to imagine that someone needed for Wynonna to watch out for Waverly. “Bobo said you were special, right Waves? So if you’re not a revenant, and you’re not an Earp, maybe you’re special in some other way and someone thought you’d be safer with the heir?”

Wynonna leaned back in her chair, kicking her legs onto the table and resting her hands across her stomach. “Well I don’t know about that, I mean, I shot our father, was committed and later left for three years, what’s safe about that?”

Waverly shook her head at her sister, “You kept me plenty safe, come on, Wynonna,” she said, looking lovingly at her, “who was it that let me sleep in her bed when I had a nightmare? Who took care of me when my other sister picked on me? Not Willa, that’s for sure.”

Nicole was about to make another observation about how Wynonna still took care of Waverly to this date, but the sound of tires coming up the long gravel road kept her from talking. Instead she turned around and looked outside through the window, where the sight of Waverly’s red jeep met her eyes. She could even make out Doc’s hat and moustache behind the wheel as he drove, and if she hadn’t just been looking at Wynonna – and therefore was certain that the oldest Earp was sitting in the very same room as herself – Nicole would have sworn that it was her sitting next to Doc in the jeep.

Jeremy gasped audibly next to her. “Mamma Earp!”

Just as the word left his mouth, Nicole was certain that he was right. She’d only just seen an old picture of Michelle yesterday, but there was not a doubt in her mind that she was about to meet Waverly’s mother (if they would even still call her that?). Nicole turned to look with wide eyes at her girlfriend, just as the jeep came to a stop right outside. Waverly was looking with wide eyes at Wynonna though, mouth agape and coffee mug clutched in her hand. Wynonna didn’t dare meet her eyes.

“We thought it was best if we just did it this way,” Dolls commented then, curtly nodding his head and glancing towards Wynonna, who nodded as well.

“She really just wants to meet you now, baby girl,” Wynonna replied, pouring just a bit more whiskey into her coffee.

The kitchen door was pulled open then as Doc made his way into the kitchen, and Nicole could feel the anticipation all the way to her toes. This was a big moment, huge, and she wasn’t even sure that Waverly was prepared for it. She wasn’t sure that she, herself, was prepared for it, but all she could do was be there for Waverly and try her hardest to support her girlfriend no matter which reaction she might have to this situation. She felt herself move over so she was standing right behind Waverly’s chair, hands resting on the back of it, silently letting her know that she was there.

She felt Waverly relax her shoulders a little bit, just as Michelle Earp stepped into the kitchen behind Doc, eyes moving from Dolls to Wynonna, then towards Jeremy before settling on Waverly and Nicole who were the furthest away from her.

Doc tipped his hat, “‘Morning ladies. Gentlemen,” he nodded towards Jeremy who responded by nervously firing off the rubber band he’d been playing with. It flew across the room and landed in Wynonna’s hair. He gulped.

Michelle looked at Waverly with nothing more than love in her eyes, and Nicole could even make out some tears shimmering in the corners. “Waverly, my angel,” she whispered, before she crossed then floor and stepped closer to them. She clearly wanted to give Waverly a hug, because she had her arms stretched open, and she looked nervous, not knowing whether or not she was going to be rejected. Nicole hadn’t been sure if Waverly would respond so well to her mother, but she was Waverly after all, and she let Michelle wrap her arms around her, their hair tangling together, cheeks brushing, fingers touching for the very first time in many years.

“Oh my god, Mamma,” Waverly whispered and once more the tears had started streaming down her face. Nicole took a step back, letting mother and daughter be, but she didn’t move far, because she wasn’t going to let Waverly handle this on her own, not for one second. “Mamma, I’ve missed you so much,” Waverly continued.

Letting her fingers run over Waverly’s brunette locks, Michelle responded, “I’ve missed you too, angel, so, so much,” she whispered against her hair, “You’ve gotten so big, Waverly, I almost couldn’t recognise you.”

Pulling back, Waverly rubbed a tear away from her chin and smiled at her mother, “I was only four when you left. It was a long time ago.”

When Michelle pulled all the way back to give Waverly more room, Nicole retook her spot behind Waverly’s chair, this time letting one of her hands settle protectively on Waverly’s upper arm. One of Waverly’s hands shot up and clasped over hers.

Michelle’s eyes landed on Nicole then, and she realised that she should probably introduce herself. “I’m Nicole,” she said quickly, reaching her right hand out to shake Michelle’s, “Nicole Haught. Nice to meet you,” she finished.

Dropping her hand, Michelle’s eyes returned to Waverly’s. They were filled with questions, but Waverly didn’t say anything, she simply picked up her coffee with her free hand and took a long sip of it. Nicole didn’t think that Michelle needed an explanation to their relationship anyway, because Wynonna must have told her everything if they’d been in contact for a while. After all – she had been with Waverly for a good amount of time now, so why wouldn’t Wynonna have mentioned that?

Wynonna grunted as she sipped her coffee, “Mamma, that’s Nicole, Jeremy, Dolls. We all work together,” she explained.

Michelle took the last spare chair at the table and turned to look at Waverly with careful eyes. “Wynonna tells me you got upset yesterday?” She questioned, carefully broaching the subject and trying to get a read on where she and Waverly stood.

“Just crushed that she lied to me, but it’s okay now,” Waverly replied, glancing at her older sister with love, “We talked.”

“‘T’was a good talk,” Wynonna hummed in agreement through her coffee.

Michelle shifted awkwardly in her seat, and Nicole cleared her throat. “Do you want a cup of coffee, Mrs. Earp? Uh, Michelle?”

“Michelle’s fine, Nicole,” she replied, nodding her head in appreciation, “After all, I hear you and Waverly are girlfriends, so let’s drop the formalities, eh? And I would love that cup of coffee.”

Nicole turned to fill a mug while Waverly spoke up. “So what? Where have you been? Or have you even been anywhere? Wynonna hasn’t told me anything.”

Wynonna winked at her, “Not much to tell, baby girl.”

Placing a mug in front of Michelle, Nicole smiled at her. “Do you want all of us to leave, or is it okay that we’re here? I mean, I’d like to be here for Waves.” She retreated to the back of Waverly’s chair and pressed a kiss to the shorter girl’s head.

“Don’t leave,” Waverly simply replied, and Nicole felt her heart swell.

Michelle took a sip of her coffee. “I haven’t been anywhere really, just here and there.”

Waverly looked confused, and Nicole got that. If Michelle hadn’t had anywhere important to go, why the hell did she leave her three daughters with a drunken police officer who couldn’t take proper care of them? Especially when her youngest child had only been four. Nicole didn’t know Michelle, but she already had very little respect for her, because the woman had been capable of that. Waverly seemed to agree to a certain degree, “But why did you leave?” She whispered, voice barely audible across the table. “You know how much Daddy hated me. It was horrible. Willa even bullied me, and if it hadn’t been for Wynonna then…” she stopped speaking.

Gazing between her two daughters, Michelle sighed. “I know you guys have a lot of questions, and I’m going to answer all of them to the best of my abilities,” she promised, reaching both of her hands out so she could touch both of her daughters. “It’s not going to be easy, because nothing about this story and your life is easy. All I can say is that I wouldn’t have left if it hadn’t been necessary for me to do so.”

Raising an eyebrow, Wynonna wanted to know more. “You had to leave? What the fuck do you mean, you had to leave?”

Doc cleared his throat and reached into his jacket to pull out his flask. “I know you mean well, Mrs. Michelle Earp, but I can’t imagine what can make a woman with three beautiful daughters such as yourself just up and leave,” he commented, taking a sip of his flask before continuing, “Especially not with a man like Mr. Ward Earp, rest his pity soul.”

Michelle ducked her head for a second before replying. “It’s not like I was pleased with it,” she said then, her eyes flashing like lightenings.

Unfazed, Doc continued, “I am just saying, that if I had the possibility to spend even a minute longer with Alice Michelle then I would gladly take it. I could never imagine leaving her side if it was not for her own protection,” he finished, eyes moving towards Wynonna as the two shared a silent look, their connection evident to everyone inside that room.

“Look,” Dolls interrupted then, cutting the tension between Doc and Michelle; it was clear that Doc was taking a stab at her, probably for Waverly’s sake as he always did, and he was definitely trying to rile her up. Nicole just wasn’t sure what he was doing it for. Dolls continued, “I know that it’s important for you three to talk about _that_ ,” he paused, eyes moving from Wynonna, to Waverly, to Michelle, “but I think what’s most important right now is the information that you learned yesterday with Greta. Something about a note?”

“Oh!” Wynonna suddenly shot out of her seat, as if all of a sudden she remembered what they were even there for, “Yeah! There was a note, Mamma, when I found Waverly in the woods, there was a note tugged into her blanket, do you remember?”

Nodding, Michelle’s eyed settled on her oldest daughter, “Yeah, you couldn’t read it, so I just did,” she confirmed, and Nicole heard Waverly gasp in front of her, because now they were getting somewhere. Nicole felt the excitement as well, and Wynonna held a hand up to for Dolls to give a high-five.

“Dude,” she scolded when he did nothing to meet her request, “don’t leave me hangin’.”

Dolls reluctantly slapped her hand.

“So uh,” Waverly interrupted them then, tapping her knuckles against the wood of the table and demanding their attention. “What was the note about?”

Michelle’s eyes moved briefly towards Wynonna before they settled on Dolls for a few seconds, which Nicole found odd. She then returned her eyes to Waverly. “I don’t remember exactly what was in the note, actually,” she said, eyes wavering a bit, which made Nicole think that she wasn’t being entirely honest right now. “But I can tell you that I asked Wynonna to hide it where no one else would find it.”

Nicole raised an eyebrow questioningly, “You asked a six-year-old to hide such an important letter?”

Wynonna’s forehead crinkled in confusion. “Yeah,” she said then, leaning forward to look directly at Nicole, “Willa or Daddy weren’t supposed to find it. It was only supposed to be me.”

“Okay then!” Waverly said, looking at her sister and squeezing Nicole’s hand tightly. “Then I guess we need to figure out where you hid that note.”

“Yeah,” Wynonna whispered, licking her upper lip and leaning back in her seat with a thoughtful expression on her face. “I guess we do.”

Nicole didn’t miss the way that Dolls and Michelle were still exchanging knowing looks despite the fact that they’d just met each other. She couldn’t help but wonder – maybe they _hadn’t_ just met each other?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, commenting and leaving kudos - it’s greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well - next chapter takes us back in time once more.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s January 2000, and Michelle Earp is just driving home to spend the evening with her three daughters when an unfamiliar man comes to deliver a message.

**_January 2000_ **

Michelle Earp was simply minding her own business, driving the family truck out of town, on the deserted road, to get home to her family this fine Tuesday afternoon. She didn’t have many plans; the backseat was loaded with groceries, and she knew that her three daughters awaited her at home. Her husband had an evening shift at the Purgatory Police Station (and thank fuck for that), so she was going to have a casual evening with her three favourite people in the world. They were going to play boardgames (if she could get an often bored Willa to participate, and an energetic Wynonna to sit still), and she was going to cook them sweet and sour soup for dinner; it was Waverly’s favourite food, even if she was only four, and she always had it with a dollop of peanut butter in the middle.

Not that Michelle particularly understood how that made the dish more delicious, but four-year-olds will be four-year-olds.

The mother of three was humming along to the radio, windows pulled down, wind hitting her in the face. She hoped that the girls had behaved alone at home, since Gus dropped them off after Wynonna and Willa got out of school. Michelle knew that her oldest could sometimes be a bit of a hard-ass towards her youngest, but she also knew that Wynonna was always there to interfere and protect Waverly by telling Willa to bugger off and leave her alone.

Michelle was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard her tire blow and immediately felt the air starting to ooze out of it as the truck came to a stop. She cut the engine off and groaned to herself. This was just what she needed; now she had to fix the tire and the girls had to wait even longer for her to arrive home.

“Just great,” she mumbled as she jumped out of the truck. Her boots hit the asphalted road, and she immediately saw which tire had caused the problem; the left one in the back was entirely flat, and Michelle wrapped her hair in a ponytail, using the scrunchy that always sat around her wrist.

The wind was blowing cold air on her face, and she cursed the ever-lasting winter that seemed to exist in Purgatory. Bending down on her knees to inspect the damage, she was very aware that dark was already settling around her, and that this deserted road hardly had any street-lamps. It wasn’t that she feared that revenants were going to come out of nowhere and attack her, because what would they even do with her, she wasn’t the Earp Heir, but she also knew that if they did want something from Ward, she was a good way to get it.

Not that he really cared _that_ much about her, Michelle was aware of that. The things he cared the most about was listed as following: Peacemaker, booze and cigars, then Willa. And Willa only made the list because she was next in line, and sure, Ward did love _his_ kids in some way, but Michelle also knew that he was a bonafide Earp, and Earps had been drilled to care about one thing, and one thing only: Sending Wyatt’s outlaws back to hell.

Michelle got herself off of the road, partly cursing her husband and his stupid ancestors, partly cursing the situation. She couldn’t even say that she loved Ward very much, she mostly just loved her kids, and she put up with his fists sorely for their sake. Her and Ward were high school sweethearts, before Ward had told her anything about curses, demons and magic guns, and when he finally did, it was only because they had gotten pregnant with Willa by accident and there was no way for her not to know. She wanted the kid; she could have never not wanted the kid, and therefore Ward had told her all the stories, and she had hardly believed him, until his father had pulled out Peacemaker and sent a man – a man that Michelle had known as simply just her kind neighbour most of her life – to hell. This had made her believe all of Ward’s stories, but it had also doomed her to this life, the life as Michelle Earp, crazy Ward’s wife and personal punching bag.

It had also doomed her oldest child to take over as heir when her husband failed. And there was not a doubt in Michelle’s mind that he would fail. The only reason she hadn’t left yet was because she still had the kids to think about, and she wanted them to have as normal a life as possible, Earp curse be damned.

Michelle popped the trunk of her truck, getting ready to pull out the spare tire and make a quick fix of it when she came to a halt. Where the fuck was her spare tire? She cursed her husband for what seemed like the millionth time that day. He’d, dumbass as he was, taken out the spare tire to use on his patrol car and then simply decided to not put in another one.

“Stupid fucking Ward,” Michelle mumbled beneath her breath, smacking the trunk close and moving towards the front of the car as well. She pulled open the door to the passenger seat and started rummaging through her bag to find a cigarette. She almost never smoked, but she could definitely use one right now.

‘And a fucking mobile phone,’ she scolded herself, as she leaned against the truck and tried to light her smoke. Ward was too fucking cheap to get her one of those smart cell phones that everyone was talking about. It was the newest thing, a telephone that you could carry with you to make phone calls and send small text messages. It sure as fuck would have come in handy right now. She could have called for someone to come get her, and could have called the house phone to tell her kids that she was on her way.

She’d just have to bite her time and wait for someone to drive by. Not that many people drove this way out of Purgatory, because the houses out here were far and few between. That was what she liked so much about it, and sure it was also great that she never had to worry about her kids getting hurt by the sons of evil as long as they were on Earp land. The ammolite in the ground made sure of that.

Huffing out smoke, Michelle watched as the dark settled around her. She could barely make out the shape of the moon hanging behind the clouds in the sky, so she closed her eyes and imagined that she was anywhere but stranded on a deserted road in Purgatory, smack down in the middle of the Ghost River Triangle.

She could see herself somewhere; maybe in a little suburb to one of Canada’s bigger cities. She’d live in a little house with her three beautiful daughters and maybe a dog. She could drive Willa to football practice, because that was probably something she’d be into. Maybe Wynonna would take up karate or something where she got to hit things. Waverly would probably be a cheerleader when she grew older. And they’d all go together to support each other whenever there was a match or game. And she’d cook for them every night, tug them in and kiss their foreheads.

And most importantly – they’d be fucking far away from Ward Earp, curses, revenants and magic guns.

Michelle squinted her eyes open and breathed out. It was a nice dream, but it was also exactly that. A dream.

Hearing the familiar rumble of a car getting closer, Michelle threw her cigarette to the ground and stepped on it, getting ready to flag the car down. She didn’t have to worry about it driving pass her though, because it was already slowing down, and it came to a stop right behind her own truck. Michelle could barely make out the person behind the wheel, seeing as she was momentarily blinded by the burning headlights, but once they were turned off, she could see that it was an older man, cap tugged onto his greying hair, and a slight beard growing on his chin and cheeks.

He stepped out of the car and smacked the door behind himself as he stepped closer to her. “You in need of some help here?” He questioned, eyeing the flat tire.

Michelle was on the fence about him immediately; maybe it was because she was a lonesome woman by the side of the road, or maybe it was because she knew that potentially everybody in Purgatory could turn out to be a revenant. She really needed some help though. “You have a fresh tire?” She questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Sure do,” he replied as he pointed with his thumb towards his car, “it’s in the trunk. I can help you fix it real quick?”

Nodding, Michelle popped open her own trunk. “I’ve got the tools. My idiot husband just forgot to put in a new tire when he used the last one,” she explained as she moved to grab her tool box and a jack out of the car.

The man helped her put the jack in place beneath the car. “I’m Juan Carlo by the way,” he said then, sticking out his hand for her to shake.

Michelle reluctantly grabbed it. “JC?” She couldn’t help but joke, and she saw his eyes twinkle with amusement. “I’m Michelle Earp,” she added then as she turned to open her tool box.

Juan Carlo pulled himself off the ground and went to his own car – presumably to get the spare tire. “You from the place out by the woods?” He questioned then, pulling the tire out of the trunk and rolling it across the road. “Married to Ward Earp? Three beautiful daughters?”

She should probably be more alarmed that this strange man seemed to know so much about her, but in Purgatory everybody knew of the Earps, so Michelle just nodded. “Yeah, that Earp,” she commented, “Three daughters. Willa, Wynonna and Waverly.”

“Waverly,” Juan Carlo commented then, as he leaned against the truck and watched her work, as she tried to remove the flat tire, “that’s a pretty name.”

Michelle’s hand came to a stop on the wrench. “We like the letter ‘W’,” she replied, feeling her heart starting to beat a little bit faster in her chest. “It’s sort of a thing with the Earps.”

Nodding, Juan Carlo continued. “I know about you Earps,” he said then, staring straight ahead and not meeting her eyes as she turned them upwards to look at him.

Grunting, Michelle turned back to her work and used all of her strength to pull the tire off the car. She was quite happy that things were going so smoothly, because she really couldn’t wait to thank this man properly and then get the hell out of here. She rolled the other tire closer to herself. “This is really nice of you,” she commented then.

Suddenly, Juan Carlo was closer to her, bent down to be at her level, knee brushing her knee, and his breath ghosting across her face as he spoke. “I’ve come to warn you,” he said then, and suddenly Michelle noticed how fidgety the older man seemed; how it looked like he was on edge, worried that someone might see or hear him talking to her.

She paused, glaring at him in disbelief, “Warn me? About what?”

“I shot out your tire,” he quickly added, as he slid something out of his pocket and into her free hand, “because I need to talk to you and to give you this.”

Turning her hand over, Michelle stared down at the object in her hand. It was a key.

“Put that away,” he quickly added, as he moved to push the new tire onto the car so she could tighten the bolts. “It’s for a motorcycle,” he continued on, answering her silent question. “I need you to pack a bag, get on that motorcycle and leave Purgatory for good.”

Pausing, Michelle could not believe what she was hearing. She stuffed the key into her leather jacket but glared at the stranger who was telling her to go away. She might’ve had the thoughts plenty of times herself, because there were times where she felt so battered and bruised that she could hardly stand it, but then she thought of her children and decided to push through it. And now she sure as hell wasn’t going to listen to a man she didn’t even know and take his advice. Even if he had hit a nerve with her. “What the fuck are you talking about?” She asked him then, bolts and tire forgotten.

Juan Carlo grabbed the wrench from the ground and started tightening the bolts himself. “There is a man who has a special interest in your daughter Waverly,” he explained then, eyes focused on the tire as he spoke. “He knows she’s not your real daughter, he knows that she was given to you, placed in the woods near your house.”

Michelle felt her heartbeat speed up as panic slowly entered her body. That secret had been well-kept for four years; four great years, where no one had questioned her lack of pregnancy, no one had talked about how Waverly didn’t much resemble Ward or herself. She’d worked her damnest to hide the truth from everybody, even her own child, who had found the baby in those woods that fateful day. And she loved Waverly, loved her like a daughter and viewed her as nothing less. Now somebody had an interest in her, knew these things about her?

The brunette couldn’t hide how worried she felt. “What?” She hissed, watching as Juan Carlo slowed down his movements, trying to make this tire-change last longer if possible.

He breathed heavily out. “There is a man, one of Wyatt’s outlaws, who has a certain interest in Waverly. He says that she’s special, kin,” he paused, moving to tighten the last bolt. “I don’t know anything about that, all I know is, that I’m not supposed to interfere. I’m here to watch, be the silent observer, but I also know that you need to leave Purgatory, Michelle Earp, because things have to happen the way they were meant to happen.”

Michelle bit her lip as she put her tool box back together and moved to put the jack back into the trunk of her car. “What does that even mean?” She questioned. She couldn’t say that she wasn’t confused as fuck.

“You can’t mess with the turn of events, Michelle,” he added once more, as he picked the flat tire off the ground to help her put it back in the car.

“Which events?” She argued. She didn’t understand anything, just that she wasn’t going to leave her daughters behind. “I’m not leaving my children, Juan Carlo.”

Juan Carlo smacked her trunk close and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Listen, you have to leave. You can’t take your children,” he said, shaking his head, silencing her when she was about to object yet again. “Things have to happen the way they’re supposed to happen, OK? Otherwise Waverly might never exist at all, Wynonna might never become the heir, and we need for Waverly to exist and for Wynonna to become the heir-”

Michelle cut him off. So much of what he was saying right now just didn’t make sense to her. “But Willa is supposed to be the heir,” she argued, shuffling her boot across the asphalt, “and Waverly already exists, so it doesn’t make any sense.”

“I’ve been around for a long time, Michelle Earp,” he said then, and there was something in his eyes that told Michelle that he wasn’t lying to her, wasn’t trying to mess with her, and definitely wasn’t out to hurt her. “I’ve seen the past, heck I’ve even seen the future. What you have in your pocket is a key to a motorcycle that I parked in the woods near the homestead. Pack a bag, go find it and _leave_ ,” he whispered, tone serious and eyes flickering around them. “I know everything so far, why would I lie to you? I know who Waverly really is, because I will be around when her mother is pregnant with her, and I just want to make sure that that happens, alright? We can’t mess with the turn of events, it could be catastrophic.”

She wasn’t sure why, but Michelle was starting to believe him. There was just something about the way he spoke of everything, the way he knew things, that told her that he was right and that she needed to do this.

“It’s also about that letter, isn’t it?” She asked him then, moving to the door of the front seat, pulling it open and dreading what was going to happen when she got back home.

Juan Carlo, mystic as ever, nodded his head, “Everything’s about everything. It will all fall together, and it will all make sense. Someday,” he promised her, before he turned around and retreated to this own car.

Michelle watched him drive away, before she climbed into her own car, turned on the ignition and started making her way back to the Earp homestead. She knew exactly what she had to do: She would make her daughters sweet and sour soup, give them hugs and kisses and then make sure that they knew that she loved them with all of her heart. She’d then leave them behind, because as far as she had come to learn, that was what she was supposed to do. And maybe someday she’d find her way back here to see them once more, to make sure that Waverly had turned out OK, and that Wynonna didn’t get into too much trouble, and that Willa wasn’t evil to everyone around her.

She mused things over as she drove the distance back. She wasn’t too happy to be leaving her children with her drunk abuser of a husband, but she also knew that they would have Gus and Curtis to take care of them and make sure that they still came to school, got fed and generally wasn’t neglected. Michelle trusted her sister and her brother-in-law to be there for her girls even if she couldn’t. Just like she’d told Wynonna to always be there for Waverly and protect her if there ever was a time that she couldn’t. Somehow she was certain that Willa was going to take care of herself just fine.

Parking the truck right next to the kitchen door, Michelle got out and was immediately met with her youngest child who flung herself into her arms, leaping off the ground and small legs wrapping around her midsection.

“Mamma!” Waverly squealed, giggling into her chest. “I missed ya’ all day!”

Michelle pressed a kiss to her daughter’s head and treasured the closeness of Waverly against her body. “I’ve missed you too, my angel,” she whispered, lowering Waverly to the ground and opening the door to the backseat. “Can you help me with this?” She asked then, giving Waverly the new jar of peanut butter she had just purchased, before pulling out two grocery bags for herself to carry.

Waverly’s eyes lit up when she saw what was in her hands. “Peanut butter?” She questioned eagerly, “Are we having soup?”

“Mh,” Michelle hummed as she kicked the car door shut and followed her child into the kitchen. Wynonna was sitting by the giant wooden table, kicked back on a chair and with her feet on the table, homework crumbled in front of her, clearly long forgotten, and Willa was hunched over something that looked a lot like math, scribbling furiously.

“‘Nonna was just ‘bout to make me sandwiches, ‘cuz you weren’t home yet,” Waverly eagerly started babbling away, placing the peanut butter on the kitchen counter and pulling a chair over so she could help Michelle unpack and prepare the food. "And Gus and I went to the shops, and I saw Chrissy and we played together, 'cuz Gus was talking to her mamma."

Brushing Waverly's hair back, Michelle kissed her on the forehead, before she took turns, pressing kisses to her other children's foreheads. Wynonna groaned and immediately wiped her hand over the place, rubbing her mother's kiss off, and Willa hardly noticed her, completely engrossed in her studies.

After that, Michelle got to working on dinner. Waverly helped her the best way she could, which wasn't much as her tiny hands could hardly chop, but Michelle appreciated every second of it, enjoying these last few moments with her daughters, gathered together in the kitchen; even Willa eventually put her books away and helped set the table, while Wynonna mostly tickled Waverly and disturbed the process.

They enjoyed a nice dinner, her kids telling her all about their days and what they had been up to; Waverly was all about her day with Gus at Shorty’s and doing the shopping, and Willa talked about her math assignment and her wish to get a horse on her birthday, while Wynonna mumbled something about a fight and the principal’s office. Michelle listened to them, asked all the right questions, and she knew that she was drawing out the inevitable; she had to tell them, had to explain everything to them, and it was very much nearing Waverly's bedtime. So when they were finished eating and Willa moved to clear the bowls and spoons away, Michelle asked her kids to stay seated so that they could talk.

The oldest girl immediately got a suspicious look in her eyes, and Wynonna bit her lip. “It’s not ‘cuz of the fight, is it?” She demanded to know.

Michelle shook her head and pulled Waverly from her chair and onto her lap, wrapping her arms around her midsection and squeezing her tight. “No, it’s something else. It’s maybe going to make you all a little sad.”

Waverly gasped. “But I don’t wanna be sad!”

“I’ll cheer you up,” Wynonna promised her baby-sister, even though she had a worried look in her own eyes.

Willa grumbled. “What now?”

Michelle knew that she could never be completely honest with her children, because if she were to tell them the truth, she’d have to tell them about Waverly as well, and about Juan Carlo, and that was not a possibility. So she did the only thing she could think of; she told them that it was because of her, and that she and Ward were not in a good place. Which was also true, and she knew that her daughters had noticed that a long time ago; noticed the fights, the crying, even the bruises on her skin.

“You know how Daddy and I have been fighting a lot lately, right?” She asked them, and she immediately saw Wynonna go rigid in her chair.

Waverly stared up at her with round eyes, “Yeah, ‘cuz Daddy drinks all the beer!”

Nodding, Michelle continued. “Yeah, he does, and it’s making Mamma really sad,” she explained to them. Even though she knew that her oldest children probably understood way more than they let on, she didn’t want to go into too many details, not with four-year-old Waverly in her lap. “So I thought that I would go away for a little while, okay? And you’re gonna stay here with Daddy, and Aunt Gus will make sure to take care of you, okay?”

Willa stared at her in disbelief. “You’re leaving us?”

Michelle felt her heart break a little bit more, and she wasn’t sure she would ever forget the disappointed look in Wynonna’s eyes. “Yeah, I’m sorry girls, but I have to.”

“Why?” Willa fired right back. She was confrontational, but Michelle understood why.

“I have to,” she simply repeated. “It’s not that I don’t love you girls, because I love you more than _anything_ ,” she told them, eyes moving from one daughter to the next, making sure to convey to them that it had nothing to do with her love for them, their love for each other, “Sometimes when you’re a grown-up, you have to do things that you don’t really like,” she added.

Waverly’s green eyes were already spilling over with tears when she turned to her. “But, but I did the thing,” she cried, shaking her head, blonde hair whipping around her, “I did what Bobo said, and I don’t want you to leave!”

Michelle wasn’t sure what Waverly’s imaginary friend had told her to do, but whatever it was, it was important to Waverly. “I’m sorry, my angel,” she whispered, kissing her forehead repeatedly, “There was nothing you could do, no matter what Bobo said, okay?”

“But I don’t want you to go!” Waverly argued, her little face getting redder by the second as tears spilled down her cheeks.

Wynonna just looked completely baffled. “But Mamma, is it because we’re not good?” She questioned, licking her lips as her fingers worried a loose hem on her t-shirt. “Because I can be better, I promise. I’ll, I’ll stop fighting, I will!”

Michelle knew her daughter well, and she knew that Wynonna had to be feeling really bad to say such a thing to her; feelings weren’t always something that came easy for her middle child. She mostly liked to keep everything bottled up, so for Wynonna to make such a promise, completely underlined the seriousness of the situation. “It has nothing to do with you, Wynonna,” she whispered as she reached a hand across the table and grabbed her smaller one. “You can be as good as possible, but I’m still going to have to leave, OK?”

“But Mamma…” Wynonna begun. Her voice faded into nothing though, and Michelle suspected that she could see on her face that there was nothing she could do or say. Oh, how Michelle wished that she could pack her daughters into the truck and just drive the hell away from Purgatory with them, but she knew that it wasn’t possible. They were cursed, they were Earps. And she wasn’t even sure that Willa would come willingly; she was too obsessed with the curse and being the heir, groomed by her father since before she could either walk or talk.

“I love you girls so much, okay?” Michelle said to them, as she fought to hold back her own tears, not wanting to cry, because it would just make everything even worse for her daughters who had to be feeling pretty horrible right now.

Willa looked positively bored when she asked her next question. “Will we even see you again?”

Michelle hadn’t considered that. She hadn’t considered that she might never see her children again, because that thought was too far-fetched in her mind. There hadn’t been a doubt that she would. But when Willa asked her like that, of course she couldn’t help but be worried that she might not see them again. At least not for a very long time. She’d have to make sure that Gus kept her updated, that Gus told her how they were doing. If Willa was getting better at shooting Peacemaker, if Wynonna stayed out of trouble, and if Waverly grew up to be the smartest kid in school.

“I don’t know,” she whispered as she seriously stared back at her oldest. She tugged Waverly closer into her body, trying to comfort her the best way she knew how, while Wynonna simply just stared at her from across the table. She wasn’t showing any emotion, but it was clear to Michelle that she was railing it all in.

Willa pushed her chair back and simply shook her head at her. “Well that’s just great then,” she mumbled, before she stood up and left the kitchen without looking back at her mother.

“I’m really sorry, Wyn,” Michelle said then, trying to mentally make her daughter understand that this was not what she wanted, that she wished that things could be different. She wasn’t too sure if Wynonna understood any of that though. Perhaps it didn’t matter anyway. To her it probably just mattered that her mother was leaving, and that she’d have to live with a father who drank too much alcohol and was obsessed with a supernatural curse.

Wynonna pushed her chair back and moved to follow in Willa’s steps. “Yeah, whatever,” she mumbled, before she shuffled out of the kitchen, leaving Michelle with a sniffling Waverly, who was tugged into her side.

“Let’s get you to bed, my sweet angel,” she whispered to her, cradling her in her arms as she took the stairs.

As she tugged Waverly into bed, she could hear Wynonna and Willa yelling outside, as they fired off shots, trying to hit the cans on the fence by the barn. She watched Waverly fall asleep for a few minutes, heart breaking, before she went into the bedroom that she shared with Ward and started to back a bag.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was a bit difficult finding a voice for Michelle, seeing as the show haven't really given me anything to work with. But it was fun writing her nonetheless! Next chapter has us back to 2017 looking for a very important piece of paper. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, commenting and leaving kudos. You guys rock!


	9. Chapter Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wynonna’s just about done looking for that stupid piece of paper when she realises that there’s one place she still hasn’t checked yet. A place that has a tendency to magically hide things until you need them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter took on a life on its own, so it’s slightly longer than most of the others chapters. I hope you enjoy though!

_**September 2017** _

“Fucking assclown, you stupid piece of assclowny shit-eating a-hole,” Wynonna grumbled to herself as she flung scrap metal around inside the barn, trying to locate a spot where a six-year-old girl would hide a note. She wasn’t entirely sure if she was cursing herself or her mother, or maybe the both of them, for keeping secrets and for hiding notes in the wrong places.

The note from when she found Waverly wasn’t behind the lose board in the ceiling, where she’d hid other kinds of important papers in her childhood. She’d checked. _Thrice_. And then she’d had Haught check too, just to make extra sure. But there was no letter up there, or she probably would have found it when she was looking for that other letter back when Willa had returned.

It was just hilariously frustrating. She really wanted to figure this out for Waverly’s sake, and it was about damn time. They’d been focused so much on her pregnancy up until a month ago, and now Waverly just deserved to get some answers. And they were all working frigging hard at finding them for her; Dolls had excused himself to the police station to research old files on missing children from around 1995 with Jeremy, and Doc had taken it upon himself to snoop around the trailer park, where Bobo might not lead anymore, but still a lot of revenants lived there. Maybe they had tales to tell, as Doc had so nicely put it.

A piece of metal cut into her finger, and Wynonna dropped it to the ground. “Fucking metal,” she hissed as she stuffed the finger into her mouth and started sucking on the blood.

She felt like she’d been around this barn so many times already, and nothing had come up, absolutely nothing, and Nicole was going through the attic inside with Waverly, while Michelle was mysteriously absent, claiming that she had things to tend to in the city. Wynonna had an awful feeling in the pit of her stomach that she wasn’t going to be more present just because Waverly now knew. Even if she had told them the truth about why she left them to fend for themselves with their drunk and abusive father. Fucking stupid Juan Carlo always meddling even if he wasn't supposed to.

She released the finger with a little pop, satisfied that the bleeding had already stopped. She fell onto Doc’s old bed with a groan, closing her eyes, and raking her brain for memories of something – anything – that would get them closer. She was pretty sure that she would have hidden the note someplace that not even Willa knew about, because her mother had stressed to her how important it was.

But she also knew that this barn had held a significance for her throughout her childhood; before Willa was kidnapped they’d spent so much time out there, hiding from Waverly and their father, talking about boys and eating gummi bears. Those were nice memories, some of the nicest ones from after their mother left, and Wynonna really tried to rake her brain for other nice places, places on the homestead that were important to her. They hadn’t come across anything when they’d shined up the place about a year ago when she returned to town, and Curtis had never mentioned finding any notes on anything, as far as Waverly remembered.

“Stupid six-year-old me,” Wynonna whispered to herself, as her eyes graded over one of the posts where Willa had once carved in a stupid-looking horse with her Swiss blade. Wynonna had borrowed the knife after and carved in three ‘W’s – one for Willa, herself and Waverly.

The sound of knuckles tapping on wood drew her out of her trip down memory-lane, and she turned her eyes to find Nicole in the open doorway.

“Knock, knock,” the redhead said as she entered the barn with two mugs in her free hand and a thermos tugged beneath her armpit.

Wynonna rolled slightly over on the bed to make room for her to sit. “You bringin’ the heat, Haught-stuff?” She questioned, smirking to herself. Making puns out of Nicole's name never got old.

Nicole took a seat next to her on the bed and placed the mugs between her thighs to hold them steady, while she unscrewed the thermos. “Thought you could use some coffee. At least I know I could.”

“How’s Waves doing?” Wynonna wanted to know then, as she pulled herself into a sitting position and watched Nicole pour the hot liquid into the mugs. “Is this-?”

“Don’t worry, I spiked it,” Nicole informed her, not even bothering to let her finish the sentence. She screwed the lid back on.

Wynonna hummed as she accepted the mug, “My kind of woman.”

Nicole finally met her eyes, “And Waves is not doing so well, she’s kinda,” she stopped, taking a sip of her coffee and wincing as it probably burned her tongue, “she’s getting kind of frantic, I don’t know. She’s been so patient this entire time, I just really want to figure this out.”

The brunette took a sip of her coffee as well, happy with the way it warmed her throat in this cold barn. “Waverly was always putting everyone else first,” she said then, eyes dancing over the engraved picture of Willa’s, “it doesn’t come easy to her to demand time spent on what she wants.”

“That’s why it’s so important that we make sure to demand it for her,” Nicole whispered, and Wynonna almost felt herself gag at the lovestruck look in her brown eyes.

A silence stretched between them for a few seconds, as they both sipped their coffees and looked anywhere but at each other. Wynonna had a feeling that there was something on Nicole’s mind, something that she wanted to talk about, but she wasn’t gonna pry it out of her. Not that she really had much time for this bullshit either, but at least Nicole had brought whiskey-coffee so that was something.

The redhead cleared her throat. “There’s nothing out here, is there?”

“Nope,” Wynonna replied, popping the ‘p’ and shaking her head. “Been over this so many times. Not a single piece of old paper.”

Nodding her head, Nicole replied. “I don’t think it’s in the attic either. Why would you hide a note in the attic anyway? You were six,” she stated, meeting Wynonna’s eyes and warming her hands on the hot coffee mug. “What did you enjoy when you were six?”

“I dunno,” Wynonna shrugged, “playing with Willa. My Mamma, watching with envy as Daddy taught Willa everything about the family curse,” she stopped, biting her lip and thinking back to the little girl in the giant rubber boots who had found a baby in the woods. “And after I found Waves, I… I spent so much time looking out for her.”

Nicole whispered, “And when did that stop?”

“Looking out for Waves?” Wynonna questioned, as a wave of guilt rushed over her, trying to remember the conflicted feelings she’d had as a ten-year-old girl. “When Mamma left,” she replied, looking at the dusty floor that was covered in scattered metal and wooden scraps. “I spent quite a bit of time being mad at Mamma, forgetting all the promises I made. It was only after… When I finally came back here a year ago, that I really became the big sister for Waverly that my six-year-old self would have been proud of. I still hate myself for leaving her like that,” she finished, not wanting to meet Nicole’s eyes.

The redhead reached a hand out and gently tapped her knee, “Hey,” she said, her voice demanding for Wynonna to look at her, which she did, “it’s not your fault. You did what you had to do, and I know that Waverly understands that. None of this is ever going to be your fault,” she finished.

Wynonna turned her head to the side and took a long sip of her coffee. “Don’t get so emotional on me, Haught-pants, it’s disgusting.”

Nicole snickered next to her and said, “So not in the barn, not in the attic,” she stated, “your bedroom? The nursery?”

Shaking her head, Wynonna just knew that none of these places were true. She knew that she hadn’t hidden the note there, because she had wanted to be absolutely sure that no one found it but herself. She didn’t want Willa to find it, and not her Daddy either, not even Mamma. She’d thrown it away, maybe in a hurry, maybe in panic, and _oh_ – she’d thrown something _else_ away too.

Nicole must have picked up on her change in demeanour as the thought entered her brain, because she was immediately responsive. “What?” She questioned, excitement evident in her eyes, as Wynonna’s met them, “What do you remember, Wynonna?”

“I’ve hid two things before in my life,” she said to Nicole then, holding up two fingers to illustrate the point, “One of them in here, because Willa told me to – and the other,” she added, nodding her head a little bit as the idea settled in her stomach; an idea not entirely unpleasant because she had a good feeling that she was onto something, “I threw into a well in a panicked state after shooting my Daddy.”

Nicole’s brown eyes turned wide, and she brushed a piece of red hair out of her face. “You don’t say…”

“I might have been just as panicked when I was six and had just found a baby in the woods, don’t you think?” Wynonna downed her coffee and dropped the mug onto the bed, “I mean, where else would it be?”

The redhead sighed and downed her coffee as well. “So many things come out of that well these years,” she whispered before standing up. “I’ll go get Waverly, you start the jeep.”  
  
Wynonna grinned as Nicole rushed out of the barn to go into the house and fetch the youngest Earp. She, herself, quickly threw some things around in the barn until she found the one thing she knew that they would need; the rope ladder. She tugged it underneath her arm and hurried to the jeep that was parked right outside where she threw the ladder onto the bed of the vehicle, before she jumped inside, jamming the set of keys that Waverly had reluctantly given her into the ignition. She tried telling herself that this was a very good plan, and that they were definitely going to find the note. She was six, of course she would have snuck out to that well with the note and hid it there somewhere. It was a place where people tended to hide things, she had come to realise; like guns and men with eternal longevity.

“This has better fucking work,” she mused to herself, as the rear-view mirror revealed Nicole and Waverly rushing off the front porch to join her in the car. The only thing that sucked about this trip was that they’d have to deal with Bobo fucking del Rey, and she really did not have the patience for his bullshit right now.

‘Maybe I should just put him out of his misery,’ she thought, as Waverly jumped into the jeep with a cheery smile and a kiss to her cheek.

“Hi sis!” She happily smiled, buckling her own seatbelt and Wynonna’s for good measure.  
  
Nicole squeezed herself in as well, smacking the door close behind her and placing an arm around Waverly’s shoulders. “This trip better not end with me going to the city tonight to fetch your cute, drunk butt,” she teased Waverly with a smile playing across her lips.

Waverly pouted as Wynonna started the car and drove through the arch marking the entrance to their land, “I said I was sorry, OK? I could have crashed somewhere, you didn’t have to come get me.”

“Like Haught-shit here was gonna let you sleep it off in your jeep,” Wynonna grumbled, eyes set on the road ahead; thankfully it wasn’t a very far drive to the well, not from the homestead, “She’s way too Haught-headed for that,” she finished with a smirk in Nicole’s direction.

“Hey,” the redhead argued, “what’s with all the Haught puns today?”

“You mean Haught, like they’re _good_?” Wynonna teased her, and she heard Waverly giggle beside her.

Nicole rolled her eyes at her, but Wynonna could see the smile on her face just the same. “So, what about Bobo then? He’s still in the well,” she stated, eyes not leaving the road. Wynonna had a sneaky suspicion that she wasn’t too comfortable with her driving. She pressed a little harder on the gas pedal.

Waverly shrugged her shoulders. “I hope you’re right about this, sis.”

“I wouldn’t be doing another dance with frigging Bobo del Rey if I wasn’t _somewhat_ sure,” Wynonna replied, turning right and moving straight towards the open fields. She could see the well in the distance. “I have half a mind to climb down there and just fucking shoot his stupid revenant face!”

“But not before getting some answers, right?” Waverly squealed, holding onto the dashboard as the jeep came to a screeching stop not far from the well. “I mean, he's still the one who planted this information in my head in the first place. He must know _something_ , right?”

Wynonna opened the car door with a huff. “We’ll see,” she simply said, before she jumped out of the jeep and retrieved the rope ladder from the bed. She padded the holster on her hip where her faithful gun was resting today, having a feeling that she was going to use it within the next hour or two. She turned to find Waverly and Nicole already pulling the makeshift lid off the well.

Nicole let it drop to the ground with a soft thud. “So you just go in?” She questioned, looking into the well.

Wynonna tied the ladder to the side of the well before glancing into it. She could see Bobo at the bottom; sitting against the side, staring up at their three faces with wide eyes. It had been a few days since he had any visitors as far as Wynonna was aware. “Hi dickwad!” She greeted him, motioning towards the rolled up ladder in her hands. “I’m coming down, but only if you play nice!”

“Earp!” He yelled pulling himself off the ground, “Not-Earp and her girlfriend, what a tremendous pleasure this is,” he called to them, running his fingers through his beard.

Nicole eyed Wynonna with a worried look. “He’s gonna climb it the second you throw that thing down there,” she commented, raising an eyebrow as she placed a protective hand on Waverly’s arm.

Wynonna pulled Peacemaker out of its holster and swung it around, clearly visible for Bobo to see. “That’d be a dumb fucking move, ‘cuz then he’d get a bullet in him before he was even up yet,” she replied, just loud enough for the man at the bottom of the well to hear. “I’m sure he’s not as stupid as he looks.”

Waverly glared down at him, “I’m not scared of you anymore, you shitty piece of shit, shit-eater!”

“Oh,” Wynonna declared, proudly placing a hand on her heart as she looked at her sister, “I do love it when you say shit-eater,” she whispered.

Nicole snickered.

“Let’s do this, suckers,” Wynonna said then as she thew the ladder down the well, watching it bang against the side as it unfolded itself. Bobo stared at it but made no attempt whatsoever to climb it. Wynonna pointed Peacemaker down at him for good measure. “I’m coming down, stupid. Let’s get this fiesta started,” she told him, before she swung one leg over the side of the well. She placed Peacemaker in her mouth, making sure to have a good grip on it with her teeth, so she could whip it into her hands if necessary. Then she started the descend down the rope ladder.

She watched Waverly and Nicole’s faces grow smaller as they watched her move towards the bottom. Nicole looked worried, and Waverly looked more excited than anything. Wynonna gritted her teeth and took one step at a time; she was focused on the task at hand, at Bobo at the bottom and being ready to put a bullet in him, but she was also watching for signs of anything that could have something to do with the note that she was so sure would be hidden in here somewhere. She was certain that it had to be at the bottom though, because if she had used the well as her hiding spot, she was pretty sure she would have just thrown the note into it from the top.

Her feet landed at the bottom of the well, and she whipped around immediately, pointing the gun at Bobo’s head. She hadn’t needed to worry though, he was still leaning against the side of the well, looking as relaxed as ever, expectantly watching her with his creepy eyes.

He cleared his throat, “Hello Wynonna.”

“Bobo,” she replied.

“What can I do to assist you on this fine afternoon?” He wanted to know, as he motioned towards Waverly and Nicole on the top, “You even brought in the calvary, how nice of you. I do not get many visitors out here these days.”

Wynonna glared at him, and she pushed Peacemaker just a little closer to the spot right between his eyes. He didn’t even flinch. “I need you to tell me everything you know about Waverly and about her parents. Every. Frigging. Thing.” She slowly said, spelling it out for him, wanting him to understand that she meant business. She pressed her finger a little on the trigger, and the gun lit a faint orange. “If you don’t, I’m gonna blow your fucking brains out and paint this well revenant red.”

Bobo eyes were settled on her finger as he spoke. “No need to threaten me. You can just ask nicely,” he commented, before he looked up at Waverly again, raising his voice. “What do you wanna know, my dear Waverly?”

Waverly leaned over the well, her braid falling around her shoulder, as she yelled back at him. “You said I was kin, and you said I was special! But who sent me to Wynonna? Who made sure that she was the one to find me in those woods when I was a baby?” She wanted to know, “ _You_?”

Bobo guffawed, and Wynonna felt her hatred for him grow a little more. “Oh, so you know you were found in the woods? Good for you,” he applauded, smirking at Wynonna as his eyes glistened.

“Talk more,” she prodded at him, pressing her finger a little harder against the trigger of Peacemaker.

“Oh, but I haven’t got much more to tell,” he replied to her, running his fingers through his beard. He breathed out deeply. “Except, well, I _saw_ who put her there.”

Wynonna felt her breath stop in her throat and she heard both Waverly and Nicole gasp from the top of the well.

Bobo continued, “It wasn’t Earp land, and I was, uuh, what do you say? Watching the progression of Willa’s training, you know, the next heir, shooting that gun of yours,” he nodded towards the gun then, which Wynonna had lowered slightly, finger leaving the trigger, “I’d been in the woods. Woods are good for… you know, watching things,” he finished with a smirk, well knowing that his words would piss Wynonna royally off.

Which, of course, they did. She glared at him. “Watching her, huh,” she sneered, raising Peacemaker again, but not pressing her finger to the trigger. She hated that he had the means to piss her off this way, but just the thought of him, watching her and Willa grow up, from the woods, spying on them, getting ready, plotting how to get rid of them. Oh, it made her mad, and it made her sick, and she just wanted to shoot his fucking head off! She felt her finger press to the trigger, but Waverly’s words cut her off.

“Who was it then?” She yelled down at them, impatient and willing to take much more of Bobo’s bullshit than Wynonna to get answers. “Who did you see?”

Nicole was glaring at him, too, looking just as pissed as Wynonna felt.

Bobo turned to look up at Waverly then; his eyes shone weirdly, and Wynonna hated that he had this fondness of her, this part of him that cared about Waverly, because he damn well wasn’t supposed to. But he’d saved her life multiple times since she was a kid, and he’d even hid her from Willa in the treehouse and also steered her onto this path, onto figuring out these things that were so important to her. Wynonna just didn’t get the kinship that he felt, but maybe it would all be explained and made sense of when this mystery was finally solved.

“Why don’t you ask your sister?” He proposed to her with a smirk.

Nicole glared at him. “Willa? She’s dead, and you damn well know that.”

“Not the sister I was referring to,” he simply replied, before he turned his eyes back to Wynonna and leaned against the side of the well once more.

Wynonna felt her heartbeat start to speed up in her chest as she stared at him, finger ready on the trigger. What the sweet hell was he getting at? Was he implying that-? But she didn’t understand it, because she was fucking six years old when that shit happened, so how would she remember – even _know_ – anything. She damn well would have told Waverly if she did!

Waverly’s unsure voice reached her from the top of the well. “Wynonna?” She pleaded, and Wynonna turned her eyes upwards to look at her sister’s sweet face.

“Waves, I don’t,” she stopped, not sure what to say, what Waverly even expected her to say. She looked back at Bobo. “What the fuck are you getting at?”

He was smirking at her, clearly pleased with himself. “Oh, if I recall correctly, you were, uh, _there_ ,” he said then, “Not just as a kid, but I saw you, clear as day, in all your untamed glory,” he explained, motioning towards her unruly hair and the leather jacket. “You placed the baby on the tree trunk. You placed a, uh, little paper-note-thingy in the blanket. It was blue, by the way,” he added, just letting her know that he wasn’t kidding around, and that he knew these facts, which meant he had to have been there.

But Wynonna still didn’t understand shit. Because what the fuck even? She hadn’t placed a baby Waverly anywhere, and how was that even possible anyway? Back in 1995 she had been six years old, and she only remembered time traveling _once_ in her life time, and that sure as hell hadn’t been back to 1995. Unless…

“Maybe I haven’t done it yet,” she whispered, her eyes shooting up to meet Bobo’s, and she swore she saw something in his eyes, something that told her that she was onto something.

Bobo smirked. “Well, well, well, if I do recall correctly, you were looking a little bit uuuuh wrinklier back then,” he added.

“Guys!” Waverly interrupted them then, “Guys, what’s going on?”

Wynonna glared at Bobo then, daring him not to say anything, because what good was that even going to do, if she still wasn’t making sense of it herself? She yelled up at Waverly then, “Bobo’s just being a dick and yanking your chain, baby girl!”

Waverly looked disappointed, and Nicole looked like she didn’t believe anything coming up that well. Not a single word.

“If you’re looking for that paper-thingy you threw in here back then, all I can say is that it’s been uuuuh, what do you say? Buried down here with some other important things,” Bobo grinned evilly at her.

Wynonna immediately started looking around herself in the well, eyes roaming the tight space. She wasn’t sure if he’d buried it many years ago or now, all she knew was that this well had a way of magically hiding things until you needed to find them, so she was certain that she’d find her note down here very soon. She glared at him. “What did you bury?”

Bobo shrugged his shoulders and rested against the side of the well, suddenly very interested in studying his gross and dirty nails. “You just be glad that I didn’t grab tiny baby Waverly from that tree trunk before tiny child Wynonna had a chance to find her,” he whispered, his eyes not daring to meet hers. He continued, “Not that I wasn’t… tempted.”

That was it. Just the thought of him stealing Waverly as a baby and taking her to the trailer park and doing God knows what with her made Wynonna’s blood boil. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what he would have done with her if he had taken her, and she was growing seriously tired of his stupid bullshit. She pressed Peacemaker into his chest, watching as it burned through his stupid fur coat and into his skin.

“Wynonna, no!” Waverly yelped from above, voice frantic and panicked; she didn’t want to send Bobo to hell, not yet. Not in case they needed him.

Wynonna didn’t care about that anymore though. She had a feeling that they’d gotten all out of him that they were going to, and she was tired of him provoking her, making vain threats and trying to stir her anger. She didn’t want to spend more time on him, it wasn’t like she didn't have other fish to fry and eventually send to their burning hell holes. She whipped Peacemaker away from his chest and pressed it onto his forehead, skin immediately sizzling as the barrel of the gun touched him. He winced, but he didn’t scream, didn’t show any sign of hurt or fright as doom loomed over him.

“Sayonara, you stupid asshole,” Wynonna sneered, pressing the trigger to Waverly and Nicole’s loud objections from above. She immediately jumped back, clinging to the rope ladder, as the ground opened beneath Bobo’s feet and fire danced around him.

He didn’t even scream, didn’t even say anything. He simply just smiled at her and gave a little wave, as he was dragged into the earth, the ground closing around him, leaving a tiny puddle on the dirt in front of her. Wynonna’s grip loosened from the ladder and she fell to the ground again, knees hitting the earth and Peacemaker falling out of her hand. She stared at the place where Bobo had just been, ignoring Waverly and Nicole yelling at her from above. She was pretty sure that Waverly was asking her if she was okay, while Nicole was letting her know how stupid she was for sending him back to hell so soon.

Wynonna didn’t care though, all she cared about right now was the fact that he was gone, and that he’d never be back, not if she could help it by catching the last of the 77 outlaws. All she cared about was her family, and therefore also the snippet of brown paper bag she could see, sticking out from the dirt, after the ground had shifted slightly to accommodate a grown-ass man being sucked into it. She reached a hand forward, crawling slightly on her knees and scooping the dirt to the side until she’d freed enough of the paper bag to make sure that she had it right.

There was not a doubt in her mind. This was what they’d been looking for. But it was bigger, softer, than she’d expected. It didn’t matter though. She knew it held the answers.  
  
“Wynonna,” Waverly’s pleading voice cut through to her, and she turned her head to stare up at her beautiful baby sister, “I’m coming down if you don’t answer me!”

Wynonna waved her off, grabbing Peacemaker from the ground and stuffing it into her holster. “Don’t bother,” she called back up to them, “I’m coming up now, I’m coming!”

“You need help?” Nicole’s worried voice cut through.

Shaking her head, Wynonna pulled herself off the ground, tugging the paper bag beneath her arm and getting ready to climb up. She suddenly felt so very exhausted, but it had all been worth it; everything was worth it to see Waverly’s face when they opened this bag and saw what was inside, she was sure of it.

When she was almost at the top, Nicole reached down to help pull her the rest of the way, and she tumbled over the side of the well, both of them landing on the ground in a mess of limbs and dirt. Wynonna dropped the paper bag on the ground and pulled herself up into a sitting position, just as Waverly fell to her knees next to them, grabbing the bag and staring down at it eagerly.

“Is this what I think it is?” She questioned, eyes meeting Wynonna’s.

Nicole groaned and sat up too. “It’s very big for a note, huh.”

Wynonna smiled at her sister encouragingly, motioning towards the bag. “Well, open it, baby girl,” she said. Not that she was eager herself or anything, she just really wished for Waverly to see what was inside the bag. “Take a look,” she added.

Reaching a hand out to gently stroke Waverly’s elbow, Nicole said, “Are you sure you’re ready, Waves?”

Nodding, Waverly smiled warmly at her. “I’ve been ready for weeks,” she whispered breathlessly, before her eyes settled back on the paper bag, and she carefully started tearing at the string that held it together.

Wynonna could feel her heart as if it was trying to pump its way out of her chest, and she wanted to rip the bag out Waverly’s hands and open it herself, because she was being too damn slow at this opening thing. Wynonna did really not have the patience for this right now, that was for sure. Not after arguing with a dumb fucking revenant at the bottom of a dried out well.

Finally Waverly slipped the string off the bag and turned it over, letting the contents spill out on the ground between them. Wynonna swore that they were all holding their breaths, and Nicole gasped loudly as their eyes settled on the two items that had fallen out of the bag, after being buried in the ground for however long.

It was the note, Wynonna recognised the way she had crumbled it up when she was just a kid. And then there was-

“A blanket?” Nicole breathlessly whispered, reaching a hand out to grasp the blue piece of fabric in front of them. It looked old and kind of mouldy, but Wynonna thought she recognised it, remembered it. It had to be the blanket that she’d found Waverly in.

But Waverly was much more interested in the note. She reached a hand out, slowly, and took the crumbled up piece of paper, as her eyes went to meet Wynonna’s. “This is really it?” She questioned, and Wynonna swore she saw a few tears looming in the corners of her green eyes.

Nodding, Wynonna hoarsely replied, “It is. I, I remember,” she promised as she reached a hand out to clasp it over Waverly’s. “Do you wanna read it?”

“Yeah,” Waverly whispered as she begun to unfold the paper carefully, not wanting to rip it. After all it was an old piece of paper, and it had to be handled somewhat carefully.

Nicole was still holding the blanket, and Wynonna saw out of the corner of her eye, how the redhead had unfolded it and was studying it, glancing it over. She looked deep in thought.

Waverly pulled her girlfriend out of her thoughts, “Nicole?” She questioned, undoubtedly wanting her girlfriend to share this moment with her.

Dropping the blanket into her lap, Nicole turned to them both with wide eyes. “I know this sounds weird because I wasn’t there, but I swear,” she paused, looking back down at the fabric, “I swear I’ve seen this blanket before.”

Wynonna raised an eyebrow, staring doubtfully at her sister-in-law. “You have?”

“But Nic,” Waverly added, clearly as confused as Wynonna felt, “how is that even possible?”

“I swear,” Nicole repeated, her brow creasing as she worried the material between her fingers. “I’ve seen it.”

Waverly bit her lip. “But where?”

Raising her eyes to meet theirs, Nicole whispered, “On Alice.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So let’s just pretend that this is a magic well where notes, and guns, and people and blankets stay magically hidden until they’re needed to be found, yeah? 
> 
> Oh. And it was so much fun writing Bobo, and I sure hope I did him justice.


	10. Chapter Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wynonna’s freaking out, Nicole’s trying to get her to see reason. Dolls is typing on his laptop and Jeremy is playing on his phone. Doc’s not anywhere, and Waverly? Waverly’s just desperately trying to connect the dots, but damn it’s difficult.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another slightly longer chapter, but shit’s going down, so I hope you all like it!

**_September 2017_ **

"It just doesn't make any fucking sense!" Wynonna repeated for what seemed like the hundredth time that afternoon, as she paced the kitchen floor in front of Waverly and Nicole, clutching that damn baby blanket between her fists and scolding at them all. "How the sweet hell would _Alice's_ blanket end up on the bottom of a well with _Waverly's_ note, huh?" She stopped in front of Nicole, fire in her eyes, " _Huh_!?"

"Wynonna, I don't _know_ ," Nicole said with a sigh, repeating the same words that she'd said approximately the same number of times as Wynonna had said hers. It was a little dance that they were doing.

Wynonna growled. "Well, you're the one who said it."

Nicole closed her eyes with a calming breath; Waverly could tell that her girlfriend was just about done with Wynonna's bullshit right now. "I know what I said, Wynonna," Nicole whispered, opening her eyes and staring straight at the oldest Earp.

Huffing, Wynonna turned to continue her quest of wearing the floorboards down with her boots.

Waverly hadn't said anything for a long time, mostly because she didn't know what to say. Nicole and Wynonna had been arguing over the baby blanket since it came out of the well, and Waverly had long ago decided not to look at the note, now neatly folded inside her jacket, because she couldn't handle that on top of Nicole and Wynonna's arguing, and she also had this weird feeling inside of her chest that she couldn't really explain. It was this odd turmoil, as if something was looming right beneath the surface, something that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Her fingers sought out the old and weary paper in her pocket, just making sure that it was still there.

Wynonna stopped then, turning back to Nicole as if to say something to her yet another time, but as she opened her mouth to speak, she caught herself and decided otherwise. Closing her mouth again, she turned back to her pacing.

Nicole sighed in relief.

Dolls was typing away on his laptop, headphones on his ears, oblivious to the tense atmosphere in the Earp kitchen. For a while his fingers hitting the keyboard was the only sound in the room beside Wynonna's steps and Jeremy's occasional low outburst as something happened on the screen of his phone. Waverly suspected that he was playing a game of some sorts.

"Okay, okay, I've got it now," Wynonna said then, catching Nicole's attention, as the redhead turned to look at her with expectant eyes. "So, _maybe_ Bobo got one of his mice to steal the blanket from Gus to toy with me?" She suggested, holding out the blanket, shaking it, "Maybe he buried it with the note because he knew we would come looking for it, and so we'd find the blanket too, and I'd get worried about Alice, and it all makes perfect sense," she rambled off, "Ah, I'm _so_ smart!"

Waverly wanted to point out several possible plot holes in that reasoning, but she really did not have the energy right now. Instead she just focused on that weird feeling in her chest; it was like she was almost making sense of all of this, like the pieces were almost fitting together, but then it all went blank, as if she was missing the most important corner pieces of the puzzle. It reminded her of when Mikshun had been inside of her, and she'd been fighting with it for weeks, trying to fill out all of the holes.

Thankfully, Nicole, although sounding very tired as well, still had the energy to question Wynonna's reasoning. "Wynonna, that blanket has been in the ground for more than a few weeks," she pointed out, eyeing the piece of fabric. "It's mouldy and it smells. It's been there for a long time."

Glaring at Nicole, Wynonna turned to the kitchen counter, placing the blanket there, and leaning herself against the side, staring out of the window. Her long brown hair fell down her back, and Waverly could see how her shoulders were tense, how her fingers clutched the counter. She was worried about her daughter, and how Alice fitted into all of this, that was evident to Waverly – but of course she would be. It was weird how Alice's baby blanket had ended up with that note, and Waverly was certain that it was one of the missing puzzle pieces.

She just wasn't sure _how_.

Dolls pulled his headphones off his ears, letting them rest around his neck. "So, are we reading that note or what?" He wanted to know.

Waverly wasn't really sure.

"Baby?" Nicole questioned, and Waverly felt a tentative hand on her arm. She turned her head to meet Nicole's eyes. "Waves?"

Blinking, Waverly tried to pull herself out of the place she'd fallen into and tried shooting Nicole a little smile. "Yeah," she whispered, nodding her head as her fingers brushed against the scratchy paper in her pocket.

Wynonna turned around by the kitchen counter, leaning her back against it instead, staring at Waverly. "Are you ready?"

Waverly wasn't really certain about that. Sure, she'd been looking for these answers for so many months now, and perhaps this was finally going to explain why she never felt like she fitted in with her family. But it was also scary that she now held the answers in her pocket; the answers to all of these questions. And now she wasn't sure if she was ready for them at all.

"We're here for you, Waves," Nicole promised, love shining through her brown eyes.

Holding her breath, Waverly carefully got the note out of her pocket, unfolding it with shaky hands. She felt three sets of eyes on her (Jeremy was still engrossed in his phone), and she locked eyes with Wynonna for a brief second, before she turned them downward again, flattening the paper against the surface of the kitchen table. She breathed out.

_My dear Wynonna,_

Waverly bit her lip as she looked up again, not capable of reading on. She screwed her eyes shut and felt Nicole's reassuring hand on her arm, offering her suiting strokes. She opened her eyes again.

Wynonna's look softened, "Read it, baby girl," she whispered, showing her support with a soft smile.

"My dear Wynonna," Waverly read, eyes finally moving back to the piece of paper on the table. Her heart was thudding wildly in her chest, but she could do this. She knew she could. "When you one day read this, you will be older and you will have gone through so many things. This baby is special," Waverly heard her own voice crack, "and I need you to take care of her like a sister,” pausing, Waverly met Wynonna’s eyes briefly, before continuing on, "Just know, Wynonna, that this decision was not easy to make, but that we did it, among other things, to protect Alice Michelle, because that was the most important thing to us and to you. We also did it, so that you could spend time with this baby when you were little, protect her and watch over her, let her be an Earp. Love," Waverly paused, her eyes once again meeting Wynonna's, "Aunt Gus."

A silence took over in the Earp kitchen then, settling between them eerily. Waverly’s eyes kept focusing on the two last words of the letter. ‘Aunt Gus’ they said. Gus had something to do with sending her to that forest and leaving this note? Waverly felt so confused, yet so… settled. This note hadn’t provided her with all of the answers that she had thought it would, actually it seemed to have raised more questions. It was like the corner pieces of that puzzle were nearly fitting, maybe she just needed to rearrange them a little. She was sure they were the right pieces though.

“Well, that note was more about Wynonna than you, Waves,” Nicole finally commented, brown eyes scanning Waverly’s face, “…or is that just me?”

Waverly sighed. “It’s about Wynonna,” she said, pushing the paper away from herself, finally acknowledging that the handwriting on the note did seem a lot like Gus’, “It’s always about Wynonna.”

The oldest Earp took a seat by the table then, reaching over it and grabbing the note. “I’m sorry, baby girl,” she whispered, eyes peering down at the old paper, “I thought it was finally going to give you answers,” she paused, eyes scanning the paper, fingers brushing over it lightly. “I think I remember,” she whispered then, “thinking that these letters did seem awfully familiar when I was six. I wasn’t sure how, but now it makes sense. It was Gus’, it was always Gus’.”

“She never said anything?” Nicole questioned then, sounding confused.

Waverly thought that that was odd too, but maybe Gus hadn’t known it back then? Maybe, maybe this note was… It sounded crazy, but then again, crazier things had happened to them throughout their lives. Maybe this note was written in the future. It was the only thing that made sense, seeing as it addressed Wynonna as an older person and mentioned Alice Michelle as well.

Groaning, Waverly placed her forehead on the table and squeezed her eyes shut. Why were the pieces not adding up?! Why did it seem like she had almost connected the dots, but then the line fizzled into nothing and she was stranded between two thoughts. Ah, it was so damn frustrating!

She felt Nicole’s soothing hand on her back, rubbing a tiny circle right beneath her shoulder blade, and Waverly was once more reminded of how amazing her girlfriend was, and how thankful she should be to have her. Which she was. She so, so was, because Nicole had done more for her than she could have ever asked for or expected.

“It’s gonna be okay, Waves,” she whispered.

“Alright dudes,” Wynonna said then, tapping her fingers against the table and catching their attention. “I’ve gotta share something with you.”

Dolls closed his laptop with a smirk. “Yeah?”

“So,” Wynonna said then, and it was clearly difficult to tell them what she was about to; at least she didn’t seem entirely happy to share. “Bobo might have said something to me earlier that I didn’t wanna tell you guys, because it didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but nothing of this shit makes any fucking sense, so here goes,” she paused, mostly to catch her breath, but also to get her bearings, “He said that he saw who placed you on that tree trunk, baby girl, and it was me. _I_ placed you on that tree trunk.”

Raising her head from the table again, Waverly caught Wynonna’s eyes. “What? As a child?”

Shaking her head, Wynonna said, “No, no, like, as a bonafide adult. He said I was wrinklier, so I’m thinking like, future me, y’know? Like waaaay in the future when I get wrinkles and shit.”

Nicole dropped her hand from Waverly’s back and reached for the note in front of Wynonna. She grabbed it, eyes reading over it, while Waverly simply felt even more confused about these turn of events. When was anything ever going to make sense to her? Unless of course…

“Are you sure it was you?” Waverly heard herself question, and finally it felt like she was onto something, like she might be finally reaching that next dot, turning that corner piece correctly.

Wynonna’s mouth dropped open as Waverly’s words made sense to her. “No fucking way…” she trailed off, eyes turning wide and round.

“Yes!” Jeremy’s cheer interrupted them, and they all turned to look at him.

For a second Waverly thought he had been listening to their conversation, applauding their realisation, but apparently he was just really excited about his game. She raised an eyebrow at him questioningly. “Jer?”

He blushed. “Sorry guys,” he whispered, turning his phone over, “I just reached the next level, and I’m gonna shut up now,” he finished with a sheepish grin.

Dolls tried to hide his smile. “So what? It’s not Wynonna?”

“No,” Nicole said then, finally folding the paper into a square and glancing up at them. “It’s not. It’s Michelle. Michelle placed Waverly on that tree trunk,” she finished.

Waverly nodded. That actually made a lot of sense. Of course she still wasn’t sure why her mother would place a baby (her) on a tree trunk back in time for her other daughter (Wynonna) to find, and it still didn’t explain who Waverly really was, and who her parents were, but it did explain how she ended up in those woods, and that was something. And of course Gus was a part of this as well, because Gus was Michelle’s sister, so it made sense that she would write that note. But what was that about Alice though?

The youngest Earp reached across the table and grabbed the infamous piece of paper to scan over the words one more time. She unfolded it yet again.

Wynonna stood up with a huff. She opened one of the cabinets and pulled out a bag of chips. “I need salt to think,” she mumbled, ripping it open and digging her hand into it. She threw a handful of chips into her mouth and the sound of her chewing filled the kitchen as Waverly read and reread the note over and over. “Ah, that’s more likely,” she said and jumped onto the kitchen counter.

Dolls turned to look at Waverly. “Finding anything out, Earp?”

Waverly couldn’t hide the smile on her face when he called her Earp, she never had been able to. “Gus and Michelle,” she whispered, “Michelle and Gus. And _Alice Michelle_ ,” she sighed. “Where’s Doc?”

“Errands,” Dolls simply replied.

Nicole huffed at him. “Oh really?”

Turning to look at her girlfriend, Waverly was surprised by the hostility in her voice when she addressed Dolls. Come to think of it, Nicole had acted kind of off with him the past few days. Waverly raised an eyebrow. “Babe?”

“Yeah,” Dolls replied, “he’ll be here soon.”

“What kind of errands?” Nicole wanted to know then, ignoring Waverly’s questionable look.

  
Wynonna swallowed a mouthful of chips, “I’d like to know that too, Dolls,” she added wiping her fingers off in her black jeans.

Waverly tapped her knuckles against the kitchen table and felt all eyes turn to her. “Forget Doc, you guys!” She ordered, flapping the note into the air, trying to remind them what was the most important thing here; what was at stake.

Ignoring her, Wynonna prodded on, trying to get Dolls to speak to her. “You know what, boss? You guys have been hiding shit from me. Where’s he at, huh? And what are you not telling me?”

As Nicole butted in, and Dolls opened his mouth to speak, Waverly nudged Jeremy on the hand and handed him the note, silently asking him to read it over; give it a go with his clever brain. She ignored the three other people in the room who were arguing over Doc’s whereabouts and Dolls’ ever-secret ways, and she found it surprisingly easy to tune them out when she fell into her little bubble with Jeremy.

He mouthed the words silently, eyes scanning the paper. “Oh,” he said then, finally raising his head and looking up at her. He had a soft smile on his face.

“Oh?” Waverly whispered. She felt her heart thud steadily against her chest. They were so close, she could just feel it.

“Well, I think it’s fairly obvious, isn’t it?” Jeremy said then, bobbing his head up and down and humming softly. “I mean, it’s not like it’s some huge secret or something, right? You follow me?”

Waverly couldn’t say that she did. “What’s obvious, Jer? You gotta, y’know, spell it out for me and stuff,” she said cheerily, trying not to stress him, even though she was eager to find out what he thought.

Jeremy shrugged his shoulder. “You’re Alice Michelle,” he simply replied, before turning back to look at his phone.

Pausing, Waverly wasn’t sure if she had heard correctly. ‘Did he just say that-?’ She couldn’t even finish the thought. She just felt herself stare straight ahead, frozen in place, as Jeremy continued with his game and the other three people in the room kept bickering, Wynonna and Nicole throwing accusations at Dolls who tried to defend himself. Waverly just – she couldn’t move. She just stared at nothing, stared into space where Jeremy’s head had previously been, and somehow she felt her entire world crumble at the same time as it felt like it was finally falling together. If Jeremy was right, if she – Waverly Earp – if she was _Alice Michelle_ , then that meant that she…

Waverly felt herself gasp audibly as her head snapped to the side to look at Wynonna. To look at her sister. Her best friend, her, her, her _person_. The one she had always looked up to like no other. And then she felt the tears well up in her eyes, spilling over before she even had the time to try and control them.

The atmosphere in the room must have shifted slightly, and the others must have heard her, because they all fell silent, and Nicole turned to look at her with concern in her brown eyes, and Wynonna dropped her bag of chips to the floor and Dolls just – Dolls just smiled.

Tears were spilling down her cheeks and Waverly raised a hand to her mouth, catching her cries as her body shook.

“Waves?” Nicole’s concerned voice was the first to break the otherwise silence where the only sound had been Waverly’s cries.

Wynonna jumped off the table. “Baby girl?” She questioned. Her eyes were flickering nervously from side to side, and Waverly could tell that she was concerned, that she was worried, because it wasn’t often that Wynonna’s hard exterior could just be broken down so easily, and Waverly was sure that she’d only ever really experienced it with herself, or when she had to give Alice up. ‘Oh,’ Waverly thought to herself as her green eyes met Wynonna’s blue ones and the entire world seemed to fall into place, ‘when she had to give me up.’

Waverly still wasn’t sure how all of the pieces fit together, and how it all made sense and fitted and ended up with them sitting together today in the Earp kitchen as sisters, but she was sure that she had the right pieces. For the first time in a very long time, she was certain that the pieces were right. And it didn’t even matter that it was so fucked up, for when had their lives ever not been fucked up, because at the same time Waverly just knew that it was true. That those words that Jeremy had just said to her, as crazy as they sounded, were true.

 _She_ was Alice Michelle.

‘I am Wynonna’s daughter,’ Waverly thought, and before she could stop it, another fresh wave of tears had made themselves appear in her eyes and were streaming down her cheeks rapidly. She sobbed.

“Waves, you’re scaring me,” Nicole whispered then, placing an arm around her shoulders and pulling her tighter, argument with Dolls clearly forgotten and pushed aside. Waverly felt herself crawl closer to the familiar warmth of Nicole’s body, wrapping herself against the tall redhead, burying her face into her neck and just demanding the comfort that she needed.

Wynonna’s voice appeared to be even closer when she spoke again, “Waverly Earp,” she demanded, and Waverly turned her head to the side, looking at her through the tears in her eyes. “You tell me what’s wrong right now,” Wynonna continued. Her voice might be hard, and she might seem ready to kill somebody, but her eyes were soft, and through that hard demeanour she was ready to protect Waverly with every bone in her body. “Tell me whose ass I have to kick,” she finished.

For the first time since those words had left Jeremy’s mouth, the thought of how to tell Wynonna entered Waverly’s mind. It wasn’t like she could just blab it out right there. That kind of news were too big, too life-altering. How was she even going to make Wynonna believe? A sob caught itself in her throat and she coughed into her elbow.

The sound of a car stopping outside pulled Waverly out of her thoughts, and Wynonna turned around with a huff, staring out of the kitchen window for a few seconds. “What the fuck,” she whispered, eyes moving to the door as it was pulled open.

Waverly turned her eyes over, only to realise that Doc had finally decided to show up and that he had company. His moustache twitched as he greeted them with a tip of his hat.

“Well baby girl,” he said then, his eyes immediately growing concerned when he took in Waverly’s tear-stricken face. “Are you okay?”

Waverly felt her eyes go wide when the next realisation hit her full force. If she was, indeed, Alice Michelle, that did not only mean that she was Wynonna’s child, but also that Doc was… She felt her heartbeat speed up and couldn’t explain the surge of excitement that rushed through her. Doc was her father.

“I – I’m okay,” she stuttered out, curling even closer into Nicole’s side. She was once more so thankful for her rock of a girlfriend. What she would have done without her, Waverly really didn’t know.

“Mamma, what the hell,” Wynonna commented as Michelle entered the kitchen with none other than Gus right behind her. “Gus?” She snickered then, eyes instantly growing with panic when she didn’t see any baby with the two older women, and Waverly understood that, because she didn’t know any of the information yet, so of course she would be panicked. “Where’s Alice?”

As Michelle went to hug her daughter, Waverly noticed for the first time how much the two actually resembled each other. They had the same height, the same unruly curls, even the same style in clothes. It wasn’t difficult to see how Bobo would assume Michelle to be an older Wynonna, because there was hardly any difference between them.

Gus took a seat by the table, reaching for the thermos and a clean mug with a tired look in her eyes.

“Gus,” Wynonna repeated, “Where’s Alice?”

“I would like to know that as well, Mrs. McCready,” Doc interrupted then, running his fingers through his moustache and resting his back against the wall. He turned to look at Wynonna, “I was merely sent to pick up these two ladies, and assuming that my daughter is taken care of, I did the job,” he turned to Dolls then, fire in his eyes. “What’s the deal, Deputy Marshall?”

Nicole was continuously running her fingers through Waverly’s hair in a soothing manner.

Taking a sip of her coffee, Gus finally replied. “Alice is just fine, Wynonna,” she said, eyes gracing over Waverly’s face as the next words came out of her mouth, “I’m quite certain that she’s safe and sound.”

Waverly felt warmth spread throughout her face.

“But how can you be sure though?” Wynonna questioned, pulling her gun out of her holster and twisting it between her fingers. “She’s not here. We sent her to you to take care of her and shit. What are you even doing here?”

Gus motioned towards Dolls. “What the Deputy Marshall wants, the Deputy Marshall gets,” she commented, before taking another sip of her coffee.

Michelle ran a hand through Wynonna’s hair. “Don’t worry, ‘Nonna, we’ll explain it all to you,” she whispered.

“I see you found the note,” Gus said then, motioning towards that damn piece of paper that Waverly was starting to grow quite tired of. “How ‘bout the blanket?”

Wynonna reached for the blanket and held it out for her to see. She didn’t say anything.

Michelle looked at Waverly then, a soft smile playing across her face. There were wrinkles there. “Did you figure it out yet, my angel?” She wanted to know. She seemed curious.

Nodding, Waverly could hardly get any words across her lips. Her mouth seemed dry from all the crying, and she wasn’t at all sure what to say. “Yeah,” she just croaked.

“Good girl,” Michelle praised her, and Gus hummed in agreement.

Nicole pressed a kiss to her temple. “You figured it out, baby? Why didn’t you say anything?”

Waverly rolled her tongue over her lips, trying to wet the dryness away from them. “You were bickering,” she whispered, green eyes meeting Nicole’s brown ones. “It’s okay, I didn’t mind.”

Wynonna sighed dramatically. “Well?” She huffed in annoyance. She was clearly growing too impatient to wait any longer. “You wanna share with the rest of us what the hell you guys are talking ‘bout?”

Doc reached into his inner pocket and pulled out his flask. “Pray, tell us,” he drawled, taking a long gulp of whiskey.

Dolls leaned back in his chair. “Wynonna, I need you to promise me to listen to what we have to say, and I also need you to promise me not to shoot me,” he said then, and Waverly would have laughed at the idea of Wynonna shooting him if she wasn’t aware of the fact that the brunette was going to be seriously pissed off. An a pissed off Wynonna had always been a reckless Wynonna.

“Dude,” the brunette replied, looking at him like he was crazy, “of course I ain’t gonna shoot you, you fucker.”

He shrugged his shoulder. “I’ve been visiting your aunt Gus to figure out how to best protect Alice,” he told her then, and Waverly felt herself go slightly rigid in the chair. Suddenly it made sense why Dolls had been distant and weird – even more so than usual – maybe he had something to do with this as well? “Not only from the revenants,” he continued, “but also from Black Badge.”

“BBD?” Nicole asked then, eyes moving between Dolls and Jeremy, “Why would Alice need protection from them?”

Jeremy butted in then, clearly paying more attention to their conversation than he had previously led on. “BBD has a habit of snatching special babies,” he spewed out, quickly raising his eyes to meet Waverly’s. “Dolls and I know that firsthand.”

“Huh?” Wynonna was clearly confused.

“Black Badge has been collecting gifted babies, children, for many years,” Dolls said then, motioning between Jeremy and himself, “That’s how I ended up there, same as Jeremy. And I quickly realised that of course your baby was going to be special.”

Wynonna nodded. She still appeared to be very confused, but at least she wasn’t shooting anybody. Yet. “Yeah, ‘cuz she’s the next Earp Heir.”

“And,” Michelle added, motioning towards Doc, “apparently also the daughter of a man who has lived for more than 150 years,” she paused, “Which makes her even more special.”

Dolls smiled at Waverly then, and she just knew that he knew exactly who she was. She wasn’t sure how long he had known, or how it had all come together, but she felt angry with him. Angry with him for lying, and for not saying anything – for letting them figure all of this shit out on their own when he could have just as easily told them. But then again – if he had told them, maybe everything would have gone horribly wrong. “A decision was made,” he said then, “so I sent Alice away to be taken care of properly. Not that I really had much of a choice.”

“What do you mean,” Doc butted in then, and his eyes were shooting lightenings, “you sent her away?”

“We sent her back in time,” Gus simply said, catching everybody off guard with her sudden participation in the conversation. She had seemed so engrossed in her coffee.

Waverly felt Nicole freeze next to her, and she just knew that her girlfriend was connecting the dots too. Nicole wasn’t stupid, of course she’d figure it all out. She was a cop too, solving mysteries and puzzles was sort of her thing.

Wynonna’s hand clenched around Peacemaker when she turned to glare at Gus. “You did _what_?”

“Well actually,” Michelle added, shrugging her shoulders, “the decision was pretty much made for us. You know, can’t change the past and all those time-travel laws, right?”

Nicole looked at Waverly then, questions floating in her brown pools. “You don’t mean-?” She whispered, and Waverly felt herself give a tiny nod. Nicole was breathless, “ _Oh Waves_!”

“I understand absolutely nothing of this shit,” Wynonna commented then. She sounded tired. Actually, Waverly noticed, she looked tired as well. It had been a long fucking day, and this was wearing them all down. Thankfully it appeared that soon it was going to be over, and they’d have to find a way in their new reality. A reality where they were so much more than just sisters.

“Wynonna,” Gus said then, voice cutting through to her with sharpness. “If I tell you that we sent Alice back in time, you really don’t have _any_ idea who she is?”

Clearly Gus was hoping that Wynonna would figure this out on her own, because then she wouldn’t have to actually say the words. Waverly was really counting on her sister’s detective skills right now as well, because it would all be much easier if no one had to say it aloud. At least not right now.

Wynonna looked like one big question mark.

“If say,” Gus added, voice trailing off, leading Wynonna to the answer, “I tell you that we sent her back to 1995?”

Biting her lip, Wynonna’s forehead crinkled in confusion. “Not sure I’m following.”

Gus sighed. “In a blue baby blanket with a little note tugged into the side?”

Waverly watched as the words finally seemed to resonate something inside of Wynonna. Gus had done everything but actually say the sentence ‘Waverly is Alice Michelle’, and it seemed to have finally caught up with the Earp Heir. Her eyes flickered slightly, and her fingers loosened around Peacemaker, as her face tilted to the side. Her mouth fell open, and when she finally turned her eyes to meet Waverly’s, it was as if everything finally fell into place. She drew in a shaky breath.

“ _Oh_.”

Waverly felt her entire body shake when she offered Wynonna a tentative smile. “Oh is right.”

Tears were gathering in the corners of Wynonna’s blue eyes. “Well fuck,” she breathed out in a throaty whisper.

Doc pushed himself off the wall, stepping closer to where Waverly and Nicole were sitting by the table. “Are you saying that you’re,” he paused, and Waverly had practically never experienced this man at a loss for words, so unsure of what to say. “… _mine_?”

“Yeah,” she croaked out, not sure what else there was to say. Everything seemed to settle around them in the small Earp kitchen.

“Well fuck,” Doc said, eyes meeting Wynonna’s as he repeated her words.

Wynonna blinked. “I really need a drink right now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oblivious Wynonna is the bestest, amirighte? 
> 
> And also, I’m really nervous about this chapter, but I hope I did OK. It was fun trying to explore the different emotions running wild between the characters. Next chapter takes us a month back and it’s from Dolls’ perspective, gah!


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes us back a month, and Dolls has a quite difficult, although important, conversation to have with Gus McCready and Michelle Earp. Wish him luck!

**_August 28th 2017_ **

  
Alice Michelle Earp was a very easy child, Dolls concluded as he looked down at the tiny, sleeping baby in Gus’ arms. She was tucked inside the blue blanket that she’d left the Ghost River Triangle in, snoozing away, and uttering small sounds. Her little hand was curled into a fist, and Dolls had a strange urge to stick his finger down and touch it. Even though he had never particularly liked babies, he’d actually never really been this close to one before, he found this baby unexplainably cute.

  
Maybe it was because she was half Wynonna, and he thought that he recognised some parts of her already, it was definitely not because she was half Doc Holliday, that was for sure.

  
He just wanted to make sure that this baby was safe from all harm; safe from the revenants inside the triangle but more importantly also safe from Bulshar, who’d been buried in the ground for so many years and had now risen from the earth to wreak havoc all over. Bulshar wasn’t just confined to stay in the triangle either; he could move whenever, wherever he pleased. But that was not what scared Dolls more than anything, because not only did Bulshar want to get his hands on the next Earp Heir, but there was also Black Badge to worry about; the department that had a habit of snatching special babies and doing experiments on them, prodding them with needles and keeping them away from their families. Something that Dolls had experienced first-hand – and something he definitely did not want Alice to experience.

  
And he was ready to do practically anything to make sure that that didn’t happen.

  
“You want to hold her while you elaborate, Mr. Deputy Marshall?” Gus questioned him with a raised eyebrow and a certain sass to her voice, thus effectively pulling him out of his train of thoughts.

  
Dolls chanced a glance at Michelle (he still couldn’t believe that he was actually sitting next to Wynonna’s _mother_ ) before shaking his head. “No,” he said, “I’m good.”

  
Michelle reached a hand out and tapped a finger against the side of the table. “Well, do you mind telling me why I’m here? Not that I mind getting to see my grandchild for the first time, but I’ve been moving around the last 18 years, and I’m not so good at sitting still.”

  
That was something Mamma Earp had in common with her middle daughter, Dolls mused to himself. At least before Wynonna had finally accepted the responsibilities that her heritage had thrown on her shoulders and decided to embrace being the heir.

  
Gus rocked back and forth with Alice in her arms, “We’re glad you’re here though. And Alice is the most amazing little kid, I’m telling ya’,” she stared down at the baby with love evident in her eyes, clearly amazed and enamoured with the little human that Doc and Wynonna had created. “She’s so determined already, just like her Mamma, but y’know what I think?”

  
Dolls simply stared at her, not really sure how he was supposed to know what went on inside Gus’ head.

  
“I think she looks just like Waverly did when she was a baby,” Gus whispered, pressing a little kiss to the bundle in her arms which elicited a whimper from her.

  
Michelle leaned over, glancing down at the baby. “Oh yeah, I see that,” she whispered, nodding her head a little, “She even does the same little whimpers.”

  
With a sigh, Dolls knew he had to get down to business with these two women, otherwise he might never get to actually talk to them about what he was supposed to talk to them about. He’d discussed all of this with Juan Carlo, of course, before the other man died, but that didn’t mean he was comfortable proposing the question – even if he knew that he had to. And he had after all come here to discuss the safety of Alice, because that was what he found to be important right now. She was the next Earp Heir, and people were trying to get to her, and even if he knew that Gus was fierce and protective and would do absolutely everything in her might to watch over Alice, Dolls just wasn’t sure if it would be enough. No. Actually – he was sure it _wouldn’t_ be enough.

  
Because Juan Carlo had told him things, mentioned the past, the future, and everything in between. And just liked he’d managed to send Wynonna on a vision quest to the olden times, he’d managed to interfere with this baby, even if he wasn’t supposed to interfere at all – just watch the stories unfold. That had been his burden.

  
Dolls knew all about burdens. He’d had his own; ever since he was child, all through his career in Black Badge. He was used to making the tough decisions, and even if this decision was tougher than anything he’d ever had to face before, he still knew that he had to. _Someone_ had to. And maybe he was too close to this, because he knew Wynonna, he knew Doc, and he knew Waverly, but he was still detached, he could still make a choice.

  
‘Especially because the choice has already been made,’ Dolls thought to himself. He had no idea what would happen to them now, to the world they lived in, to their relationships and the battles they were fighting, if he somehow couldn’t convince Gus and Michelle of the facts, and thus altering the past entirely. It was something he didn’t want to have to face, which was why he simply had to convince them, and if – and this was a giant if, because he hoped it would not come to this – he could not convince them, he’d have to do the hard part and snatch the baby away to make it happen.

  
But as Juan Carlo had once told him, he should be able to convince them, because in a way he’d already done it.

  
“Well?” Gus prodded him on.

  
Dolls sat up straighter. “What I’m about to tell you now will probably sound very confusing at first, so please do remember to keep your minds open,” he explained, as he glanced from Gus to Michelle. “I know you believe in the supernatural, you kind of have to being a part of the Earp family, but maybe this is a little unbelievable, even for you,” he finished.

  
Michelle sat up straighter, tugging her leather jacket closer around herself, and Gus shifted nervously in her seat.

  
“You,” he begun, brown eyes boring into Michelle’s lighter ones, “you didn’t give birth to Waverly, did you?” He questioned. He already knew the answer to the question of course, unless Juan Carlo had been feeding him entirely wrong information before his death. Somehow, Dolls believed, that that just wasn’t the case. He’d had to piece together all of the little bits himself, because of Juan Carlo’s untimely death, but he was confident that he had managed to find an explanation which – although insane – actually made a lot of sense.

  
The two women shared a look, and Dolls could see that they were silently debating whether or not to be honest with him. He was pleased when it seemed like they came to the conclusion that they could.

  
“No,” Michelle replied, “I know she’s found out that she’s not really an Earp, but I’m sorry, Deputy Marshall, I don’t have any information as to where she came from,” she paused, looking him straight in the eyes, “Wynonna just found her in the woods.”

  
Gus cleared her throat, “Of course Wynonna and Waverly know nothing of this. Wynonna clearly remembers Waverly coming home from the hospital – just like we wanted her to remember.”

  
Dolls nodded his head. “I figured,” he said, “there’s spells, potions, to alter memories. It’s not that difficult to do on a six-year-old, right?”

  
Michelle looked at the table, clearly feeling guilty for putting a spell on her own child. She sighed. “Look, I know you’re close to Wynonna and Waverly, and that you probably just want to help them or whatever, but I’m not going to apologise for making that decision,” she said. Her eyes were hard, and there was a crinkle right between her eyebrows. Dolls thought that she looked an awful lot like Wynonna at that moment. “There was a note, OK? Tugged into the blanket that Waverly was in, and it said, very clearly, that we were supposed to take her in, that she was special, and that Wynonna,” she paused, biting her lip for just a second, “and that Wynonna was supposed to watch out for her.”

  
Gus nodded from her seat. “So that’s what we taught her to do,” she said, “From day one, Wynonna was Waverly’s protector, and when she ran away to Europe, and Waverly was stuck with Curtis and I, it broke my heart, because those two always had such a bond, and I knew that… that we had failed somehow,” she finished as she turned to look at Michelle with apologies written all over her face. “I’m sorry, Michelle, I really tried to do right by them, even after you left and Ward died. I really did.”

  
Reaching a hand out to gently rub Gus’, Michelle replied, “You did just fine. They turned out great, didn’t they? Look at them now, being sisters and taking care of each other, working to break the curse,” she paused with a sigh, “It’s more than I could have ever imagined.”

  
Dolls knew that a lot of the decisions that had happened in the past probably hadn’t been easy to make, and he wanted to reassure the two women that it was okay, and that he believed that they had done their absolute best to watch out for the Earp girls. “I’m not here to pass judgment on anybody, okay?” He told them, raising his eyebrows and looking from one woman to the other. “The past is,” he paused, “the past. And it shouldn’t be altered, even if we have the means to do so. I just don’t think that would be in anybody’s interest.”

  
Michelle turned to look at him with a huff. “What is that even supposed to mean?” She demanded to know, and right there, Dolls was reminded of Waverly and her stubborn ways.

  
“Do you remember anything else from the day Wynonna found Waverly?” He asked then, just needing to be sure that this was truly the right thing, that he wasn’t making a mistake, even though he could feel in his body that he was right. “Anything else from the note or anything?”

  
The oldest Earp seemed to think about it for a few seconds. Her face scrunched up in true Earp fashion, and Dolls could clearly see the relation between the woman in front of him and the two younger Earps he’d come to care so much about. Michelle sighed. “Not really. It was just – Wynonna came home with a baby from the woods outside of the homestead. She said she’d heard me call her name repeatedly, but I was in town, so she must’ve imagined it,” she paused, pondering things over, “and then there was the letter. Wynonna had crumbled it up, but it clearly said to take care of this baby, and that Wynonna would always have to be there for her. Which is something she took very seriously for a six-year-old, I’ll tell you that.”

  
Dolls couldn’t stop a tiny smile from appearing on his lips at the thought of a six-year-old Wynonna determinedly watching over baby Waverly. “I can imagine.”

  
“She wouldn’t leave her side,” Michelle continued, “She used to sneak into the nursery and sit in the crib with her all night. She didn’t want to go to school.”

  
Gus nodded her head, clearly having fond memories of this time in their lives as well. “She gave Waverly her name, did she not?”

  
Nodding, Michelle continued. “Yeah. She named her Waverly. And I used to call her my angel, because she was just that special, y’know?”

  
Dolls did know. He knew more about just how special Waverly was than the two women did. Especially how special Waverly was to Wynonna. But how was he going to explain this to them in a way that wouldn’t freak them off entirely? He continued with the questions, easing them into it, hoping to soften the blow of what was going to happen sooner rather than later. “And the letter? Where’s the letter now?”

  
“Wynonna hid it,” Michelle quickly said, pushing her chair back and turning to the counter where a fresh pot of coffee had been brewing. She grabbed tree mugs from the shelf above the sink and started pouring the black liquid into them. “I don’t know where. Somewhere close to the homestead, it’s probably still there,” she continued, taking a sip of one of the mugs, and placing the other two on the table; a pink one in front of Dolls, and an orange one in front of Gus. “I told her to hide it somewhere Willa wouldn’t find it. I doubt she even remembers.”

  
The relaxing smell of coffee started drifting into Dolls’ nostrils as he cupped the mug with both hands. It was nice. Warm. “And how was Waverly when she was found?” He wanted to know then, before taking a long gulp of coffee.

  
Gus took a sip of hers as well, making a sigh of contend at the taste of it on her tongue. “She was wrapped in a blue blanket, wasn’t she?” She wondered aloud, letting her gaze fall to Alice in her arms; eyes wandering over the small frame. “Actually, it looked kinda like…” she stopped herself, frowning, “huh.”

  
Dolls could tell that she’d discovered something, thought of something, and he had an inkling as to what it could be.

  
Michelle wasn’t quite there yet though. “What Gus?” She demanded to know, gulping down another sip of coffee as she took a seat in her chair.

  
“It kinda just,” Gus brushed a finger over the blue blanket that Alice had been wrapped in straight after she was born; it had become a comfort for her, somehow, and Dolls remembered planning the escape with Nicole, how they would deter the revenants, trick them into thinking the next Earp Heir was a boy by wrapping the girl in blue. Which, at the same time, had been a nod to Doc and the time he was from. It would only take so much time though, before the revenants would find Alice Michelle despite their efforts, and that was partially why Dolls was visiting Gus in the first place.

  
“It kinda just reminds me a lot of this one,” Gus finished, eyes roaming across the baby, the blanket, before meeting Dolls’ eyes across the table. “Well, I’ll be damned…” she whispered, as tears immediately started pooling in her eyes.

  
Giving her a curt nod, Dolls confirmed her silent question, before turning to look at Michelle, who was as oblivious as Wynonna had been when Waverly first started dating Nicole. Which, of course then, was very oblivious.

  
“I don’t understand shit of what is happening right now,” she just said, looking utterly confused as she sat there, with her coffee mug, and her unruly hair.

  
Gus was controlling her tears, but there was a waver in her voice when she looked at Michelle. “It seems that…” she whispered, clearly not quite understanding it all yet, but still it seemed to make sense to her. She cleared her throat and regained her usual composure. “It seems that,” she repeated, “Alice is Waverly, and Waverly is Alice.”

  
Michelle whipped around in her chair immediately, looking at Dolls with wide eyes, as she squeezed her coffee mug enough to turn her knuckles white. “What-?”

  
Dolls nodded in confirmation. “There is, _was_ , was a man named Juan Carlo, and it seems like he orchestrated all of this, made sure it happened as he was cursed to observe,” he shrugged his shoulders, “I just, I added the pieces of information together. It all makes sense,” he finished.

  
Turning to look at the bundle in Gus’ arms, Michelle slid off her chair and kneeled down next to her sister, the woman she had trusted her children’s lives with more than she’d trusted her own husband. She breathed heavily, brushing the blue fabric away from Alice’s, _no_ Waverly’s, _Alice’s_ face as she stared down at her, and everything seemed to come together in her mind. “My beautiful angel,” she whispered, kissing the baby’s head, and nuzzling her nose against her. She pulled back, turning to Dolls with the same expression that Gus had held just minutes prior. “How?”

  
“I don’t have all the details yet,” he said, pleased that none of the two women had chased him out of there yet. “All I can say is that, yes – the baby you’re holding, Gus, it’s quite definitely Waverly, and uh, the DNA test that Waverly took a while back proves it. Someone must’ve altered the results for her though, not wanting this information out yet, I’m quite sure it was Juan Carlo’s work, before he died.” He paused, swallowing loudly, “And if everything you’ve said to me is true, Michelle, then I’m quite certain that we are supposed to send Alice back in time, place her in this blanket, in those woods, and make sure that Wynonna finds her.”

  
“I’ll write the letter,” Gus said, standing up from her chair and turning towards the counter, Alice still tucked safely in her arms.

  
Michelle slid onto her chair again. “But…” she trailed off, confusion written all over her face. “I still don’t understand why? I mean – Alice, she’s, she’s safe here, y’know? There are no revenants to harm her outside of the Ghost River Triangle.”

  
“But Bulshar has risen,” Dolls told her, eyes moving to the counter, where Gus was pressing her pen to a white piece of paper, “and there are so many other things that can harm her, and I know that those things are also present in the past, but… But Wynonna deserves to be with her daughter, doesn’t she? Even if it’s not in the ideal way.”

  
Taking a long swig of her coffee, Michelle looked as confused as Dolls remembered feeling when he first pieced all his information together and came to this exact conclusion. “Yes, but,” she shook her head, “it still doesn’t make sense to me.”

  
He sighed. “Look. Things that happened in the past happened, right? But they can still be affected by what we decide now, in the future,” he bit his lip, not sure how he could best explain this to her. He knew he had to find a way though, because the decision ultimately came down to Michelle; if she wasn’t on board, there was no way that that baby was being sent back in time. He pushed his chair back and reached for a plain piece of paper on the counter. Gus, apparently reading this mind, handed him a pen.

  
Pen and paper in hand, Dolls started scribbling notes and drawing. “This,” he said, circling the year ‘2017’ written on the paper, “this is us. Now. And this,” he circled the year ‘1995’, “this is the past, this is how the past is now. With Waverly and Wynonna being alive, together, as siblings, but together nonetheless,” he looked at Michelle, “You with me so far?”

  
“In this timeline, Wynonna found Waverly in the woods and I left when Waverly was four, right?” Michelle asked him, clearly trying to understand it.

  
“Exactly,” Dolls nodded, “And if we say that you two don’t believe me, and we do _not_ send Alice back in time, this timeline,” he pointed his finger at the line he had drawn between the two years, “it disappears, you see? Because if we don’t send Alice back, Wynonna doesn’t find Waverly, and an alternate future falls upon us,” he finished, drawing another line, to another place on the paper, where he also wrote the year ‘2017’ before circling it. “But who knows what consequences that will have? Maybe Ward and Willa are still alive, maybe Alice, Waverly, won’t ever exist because Doc is stuck at the bottom of a well and he doesn’t meet Wynonna.”

  
He let the words hang in the air between them for some time; he could hear Gus scribble away on the paper, even though he knew she had listened to his every word, and Michelle just seemed to ponder all of this information over. He dropped the pen to the table.

  
Michelle bit her lip, “But like,” she raised an eyebrow, “what if you’re wrong? What if Alice isn’t Waverly, and we just send Wynonna’s daughter away.”

  
Dolls was amused. “I’m not wrong,” he just said.

  
Gus turned to them then, an envelope in one hand, where Dolls could just make out Wynonna’s name written across the front. She placed it on the table in front of Michelle, a certain look in her eyes. “Look at this beautiful child,” she whispered then, eyes gliding across the baby’s form as she held it tight. “It’s Waverly,” she said, “it’s as clear to me as day now. It’s Waverly.”

  
“But why do we do it?” Michelle wanted to know then, but it was clear that she was starting to believe that they were on to something. “I mean, besides the fact that we’ve clearly already done it?”

  
“Why do we send her back?” Dolls questioned her.

  
Michelle didn’t have time to say anything back, because Gus was ready to answer the question for them both. “It’s safer there,” she nodded her head, “of course there’s revenants and that shitty Ward of yours, but there’s no demon Clootie, and no threat of Black Badge,” she looked to Dolls then, “Yeah, I listen when you talk,” she fired at him.

  
The baby was starting to stir in her arms, slowly waking up to all of the turmoil going on around her.

  
Dolls took another sip of his coffee. “Besides,” he said, “I’ll even do it for selfish reasons, _my_ selfish reasons. I mean – we _need_ Waverly. She’s done so much research on the Earp curse, and I know I didn’t have much faith in her at first, but she’s grown so much, and,” he stopped himself, not really comfortable sharing too many emotional thoughts with the two women; women that he barely knew. “Wynonna’s so proud of her.”

  
“You need her as a brilliant 21-year-old and not a vulnerable baby,” Michelle finished, eyes moving toward the baby that was now staring up at them with curious eyes.  


‘Green eyes’, Dolls noticed as his gaze turned to land on the baby as well, for the first time meeting her in an awake state. Two very familiar green eyes.

  
Michelle reached out, clearly coming to terms with the fact that this was the new reality, this was the truth. “My angel,” she whispered once more.

  
Gus cleared her throat. “This chatting is all fine and well, and we all agree this this baby Alice is actually Waverly,” she said, her voice sharp and efficient, just like it mostly was, “but how are we even gonna get her back to 1995?”

  
Padding the bag next to him, Dolls looked at her with a smirk. “I’ve got that managed, we just need to set it up,” he told her. “Only thing is, we can’t just send her back alone, because she’s an infant, someone will have to go and make sure she ends up in the right place.”

  
Michelle’s grin was wide and mischievous when she looked up at him, “Well, Wynonna did say that she heard me call her name, didn’t she?”

  
Dolls couldn’t help himself – he cracked a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this chapter explained the last bit of confusion you guys seemed to have about the DNA-results. It was JC, it was always JC!
> 
> Also, I have just posted the first chapter of a new fanfic, if anyone’s interested. It’s AU, Wayhaught and almost nothing but fluff!


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s been a few weeks since the huge revalation, and Waverly and Wynonna have some awkwardness they need to sort out. Everybody needs to get used to their new roles and what it might mean for them as a family.

_**October 2017** _

  
It wasn’t like so much had changed between them the last few weeks, and Waverly was quite honestly thankful for that. She was _happy_ (although she wasn’t entirely sure that that word could even begin to describe the extend of her feelings) that she now knew exactly where she came from, and she was pleased with how exactly _right_ it felt – but she’d also always liked the dynamic that all of them had come to share in the last year or so, so to her it didn’t matter that most things were exactly the same.

  
Because they were _right_ the way they were. Their family was hardly perfect, but it was definitely right for them.

  
Sure, Wynonna had acted out a little bit, but Waverly didn’t blame her. Who wouldn’t have, if they found out that their sister was really their daughter? But she’d thrown herself into finding Bulshar and getting him dead, and that was OK too. Mostly because this time – unlike the time were she’d just said goodbye to her child – she was doing it the healthy way, you know, eating, sleeping, drinking an appropriate amount of whiskey.

  
And Doc had been absolutely amazing. He’d thrown himself into their new roles in a way that Waverly had never anticipated or expected from him. Honestly, she had come to realise, not much had changed between them either, because he’d always protected her, taken care of her exactly like a father would, and the bond that she’d always shared with him had only grown stronger the last few weeks.

  
It was the start of something at least.

  
Doc was firing up the grill, getting ready to grill meat and vegetables for them all; the food that Gus was preparing in the kitchen right now with Jeremy, getting pointers on vegetables and healthier grilling, something that their family had never really been much into – the healthy part that is.

  
Michelle was assisting Doc by the grill, which mostly consisted of her drinking beer from a lawn chair and shouting out pointers that were not helpful at all.

  
Dolls and Wynonna were off on some hunt somewhere, and for once Waverly was happy to not be a part of it, because she was quite contend where she was right now; sitting on the porch swing with Nicole’s arms wrapped tightly around her from behind.

  
Besides, Dolls and Wynonna had some shit to figure out together. To say that Wynonna had been mildly pissed at him for sending her child back in time was an understatement. But at the same time she had definitely understood why he’d done it, so at least she hadn’t shot him or anything. Waverly herself had yelled at Dolls, losing her famous Earp-temper as Nicole called it, telling him that he better not hide something like this from them again, and that he had been a dick and acted like a shit-ticket, that she loved him, and oh that he’d been a shit-eater too. And then she’d kissed his cheek, because Dolls’ tendency to do what was right instead of always doing what he should according to his friendships had not only allowed Jeremy to test the Widow poison on him, but now also saved Waverly from tumbling into non-existence if the past been altered.

  
She owed him great thanks, even though he’d still been a shit-eater and lied to them all. And she knew that there were still so many things they needed to talk about – between all of them – but for now she was just quite happy to be.

  
Waverly Earp. Daughter of Wynonna Earp and Doc Holliday. What a peculiar although very fitting title.

  
She sighed happily and snuggled even closer into Nicole’s warm embrace. It was getting even colder now, and she was always happy to have her bonus blanket – also known as her girlfriend, Purgatory’s sexiest police officer – at close hand if she ever needed it.

  
Nicole pressed a kiss to her temple. “How are you doing, Waverly Earp?” She whispered into her ear.

  
The brunette felt a shiver run down her spine when Nicole’s hot breath touched her skin. “I’m good, Nicole Haught. Never been better,” she happily sighed.

  
“Good,” Nicole replied, snuggling her nose into Waverly’s hair. “Have you and Wynonna, y’know, talked?”

  
Waverly stared straight ahead and watched as part of Doc’s coat caught on fire, and Michelle did nothing to help him put it out. For a second she felt Nicole tense behind her as they watched Michelle fall out of her lawn chair, laughing, but the redhead relaxed again when Doc managed to stomp the fire out.

  
“Not really,” Waverly replied then, “I’m not sure she knows what to say. Maybe she just needs a little more time. But we’re good, we’re definitely good,” she added, rubbing her hand over Nicole’s arm for good measure. And for the first time in a very long while she actually meant it when she said that she was good. There was no lie coming across her lips as the words spilled out.

  
Waverly felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and she stuck her hand into it, slipping out the device. She saw Rosita’s name on the screen and quickly opened the message, letting Nicole read along with her from above her shoulder.

  
_Rosita (15:48 PM): You can come by the bar for tequila if you need to talk. Just tell me when._

  
“Rosita not coming today?” Nicole questioned, truly sounding surprised. Waverly knew she hadn’t been pleased when she found out what Rosita had tried to pull during the birth at Shorty’s, but she had been surprisingly calm when Waverly had continued to text with Rosita after her trip to the city. She had tried to explain to Nicole that Rosita had not actually wanted to harm anybody, but that it had been a difficult time for her, because she knew she had a death-sentence looming above her. It had seemed to resonate somewhat with Nicole, and they had come to the agreement of giving Rosita a chance to redeem her past actions.

  
Waverly shook her head. “Nah, I haven’t really discussed it Wynonna yet,” she whispered, chancing a glance up at girlfriend. “Rosita’s OK with being shot last if Wynonna can forgive her for trying to snatch Alice away…” Waverly paused when she realised her mistake. A mistake she, more than anybody else, had continued to make throughout the last few weeks. “Uh, _me_ away,” she added with a bite to her lip. “Rosie just wants to come back to her family, she says. And I uh, I really want her here.”

  
Nicole’s arms squeezed her tighter. “Then you should have her here,” she replied, and Waverly just knew that she was being truthful. Nicole had just been so fucking amazing with everything.

  
“It’s kinda weird though,” Waverly replied, finally saying something aloud that she hadn’t dared say to anybody since it had all been revealed. “I’ve, y’know, held myself,” she motioned with her arms, pretending to cradle a baby in them against her chest. “I held myself as a baby, I even, y’know, sort of helped myself being born.”

  
Humming in agreement, Nicole said, “Yeah, and you carried yourself across the border too.”

  
Waverly couldn’t hide her little smile. “It’s kinda weird, right? It makes me kinda weird.”

  
“No,” Nicole whispered then, her brown eyes meeting Waverly’s, and there was so much love shining through them. “As I’ve said before, it makes you _extraordinary_ ,” she whispered, lips curving into a little smile.

  
Waverly stared at her girlfriend, truly taken aback by her amazingness. She couldn’t tare her eyes away, she was just so completely enamoured with everything that was Nicole. Nicole Haught; the most beautiful woman in the entire world.

  
“Sorry you two lovebirds,” Gus’ voice cut through to them, effectively stopping their little moment of lovingly gazing at each other. “Jeremy is requiring your salad chopping expertise, Officer Haught,” she said, holding out two beers and offering them both a smile. “You mind helping the poor kid out while I have a chat with Waverly?”

  
Nicole scooted out of her seat with a hum, effectively leaving Waverly to fend off the cold for herself. The brunette immediately missed her bonus blanket, and Gus just couldn’t cut it when she took a seat next to her on the porch swing and offered Waverly one of the beers. “How are you doin’, kiddo?” She questioned, taking a long gulp of her bottle.

  
Raising the bottle to her lips, Waverly took advantage of the time to really think about this. Her Aunt Gus, more than anyone else, had acted like a mother to her throughout her childhood, and Waverly would be eternally grateful for how she and Uncle Curtis had raised her. Even if that childhood had been filled with lies and secrets as the two grown-ups hid things from her. They’d just wanted for her to be safe, and Waverly understood that more than anything right now. She swallowed her beer. “Honestly Gus,” she whispered, green eyes settling on the horizon that was already starting to turn orange, “I’m really good. I’ve… I’ve never been better. Everything’s sorta falling into place, y’know?”

  
Gus placed an arm on her hand, padding it lightly. “You’ve always been such a great kid, Waverly,” she honestly said, love shining through those eyes the way it had always done regarding Waverly. “Gosh, you made Curtis and I proud throughout school. He always believed in you. We might have not known, you know, back then where you truly came from, but we knew that you were special. And kiddo, you really are.”

  
Waverly took another sip of her beer. “I think I’m finally starting to realise that myself.”

  
“You should,” Gus commented, following Waverly’s line of sight. “I remember Michelle telling me where you came from, how you came into our lives, and I knew that I had to shield you from everything until it was absolutely impossible not to,” she whispered and turned her head then, eyes fierce as they met Waverly’s. “Can you forgive me, kiddo? For lying all these years?”

  
“Honestly, Aunt Gus,” Waverly whispered, and this time it was her turn to pad Gus’ hand carefully, “I’m not even mad. I’m just so,” she searched for the right word, “ _thankful_.” She shook her head, closing her eyes and breathing out. “Everything has happened the way it was supposed to, I think. Wynonna had to leave, and then she had to come back. And we had to really find each other as sisters, and Doc and Dolls had to come into our lives, and I had to meet Nicole,” she paused briefly, heart speeding up slightly at the thought of her beautiful girlfriend. “And now this. It’s all as it’s supposed to.”

  
There was a lonely tear peeking in the corner of Gus’ eye, but Waverly pretended not to notice, because Gus liked being a hardass and she hated crying, so Waverly wasn’t going to say anything. Instead she stared at Michelle and Doc who were now sitting together by the grill, on each a lawn chair, clinking their beers and smoking their cigarettes.

  
Gus was watching them too. “So Doc Holliday, huh? I knew curses and demons were real, but men with eternal life? Psh,” she sipped her beer.

  
Waverly stared at the older man – her true father, which she had never really had before – and couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “I can’t believe I’m the daughter of the greatest gunslinger there ever lived,” she whispered, hiding her smile behind another sip of her beer. It was just insane.

  
Sighing, Gus replied. “There’s so many things I can’t believe. It’s gonna be nice though, to be able to visit more. Maybe that sister of mine will even stay still for a minute or two,” she finished.

  
“That’d be nice,” Waverly commented.

  
A comfortable silence fell upon them then, as they sipped their beers, rocking back and forth on the porch swing as Waverly remembered doing with Gus throughout her childhood and early teens. Gus used to read to her while Curtis cared for his tomatoes, and Waverly even remembered sharing her first kiss with one of the York boys – she wasn’t entirely too sure which of them it was – on a swing not entirely different from this one. This one was from Nicole though, and she’d put it up last week, and Waverly had had an all together different kind of kiss on a porch swing this time around. A kiss with her girlfriend.

  
Dolls’ car came rolling up the gravel road then; he was driving and Wynonna was leaning halfway out of the window, cheering at them with a bottle in one hand and Peacemaker in the other. The car came to a stop not far from the grill, and they all greeted each other; happier than Waverly had seen them in a long time.

  
She felt Gus rise from the swing next to her, just as Jeremy and Nicole made their way out of the kitchen, struggling with trays of food that were going to the grill. The redhead offered Waverly a warm smile, and the brunette mouthed a silent ‘I love you’, as they made their way towards the grill. Doc greeted them with a rise of his hat, and Gus went into the kitchen to grab the rest of the food. Waverly wasn’t sure who else was joining them, because it seemed like they were planning to cook for more than eight people, but then again, Gus had always cooked for more than eight, even when they were just three.

  
Gulping down some of her beer, she looked up, only to find Wynonna staring at her from her place amongst their family. She had a smile on her face, Waverly could tell, and there was this look in her eyes; they were soft, caring. And she nudged her head slightly towards the barn, silently asking Waverly to join her there.

  
The youngest Earp offered a nod, and the two made their way towards the barn from their different locations; Wynonna leaving all of their family and friends to do the grilling, and Waverly leaving the comfort of the porch swing. She followed in Wynonna’s steps and entered the barn a little after her, closing the door behind her with a thud, thus effectively shutting off the sound of their family laughing together outside.

  
The barn was slightly warmer, shielding them form the wind, and the orange glow from outside was streaming in through the cracked windows. Waverly didn’t think she’d ever seen anything quite as breathtaking.

  
Wynonna padded the spot beside her on the bed, and Waverly tentatively sat down next to her, remembering how she had offered Doc to sleep in their barn, because friends didn’t let each other get killed by revenants. It seemed like such a long time ago, but really – it had hardly been a year. So much can happen in a year.

  
“How are you?” Waverly asked then, bending her head slightly and looking up at the other woman. She might have just told Nicole that everything was good, and truly, it was, but she couldn’t deny the slight awkwardness there had been between her and Wynonna since it was all revealed. She just wasn’t sure how she could fix it.

  
“I’m,” Wynonna’s voice cracked slightly, and she took a moment, pausing, before she continued, “I’m good. I eh, I talked to Dolls today. You know, about shit,” she nodded her head, pushing a stray curl away from her face and finally meeting Waverly’s eyes. “He said that uh, that Juan Carlo must have buried the blanket with the note in the well,” she licked her lips, “You know, after I threw it away. He’d wanted to preserve it, make sure that it could withstand the weather and shit.”

  
Nodding, Waverly thought that that sounded reasonable. “Are you and Dolls OK?”

  
Wynonna made a face, perching her lips and biting the inside of her cheek. She breathed out. “Yeah. Dolls explained it all to me, so we’re, we’re good. Just shooting rev-heads and chasing Bulshar, you know, regular Friday on the job.”

  
Waverly couldn’t hide her grin. “It’s Tuesday.”

  
Rolling her eyes, Wynonna reached a hand out and drew Waverly in. When their bodies settled against each other, and Waverly felt her cheek press against Wynonna’s chest, she realised that this was the first time they’d touched like this since they found out the true nature of their relationship. She hadn’t realised it was there, but suddenly all the tension between them seemed to dissipate.

  
“Come here, baby girl,” Wynonna whispered, brushing her hands over Waverly’s hair and pressing kisses to her forehead repeatedly. Waverly could hear the tears in her voice when she said the next words to her; words that she’d probably wanted to say for a while. “You’re damn well the only thing I’ve ever done right,” she breathed.

  
Feeling the tears well up in her own eyes, Waverly buried her head even further into Wynonna’s chest and hugged her tight. They stayed like that for a while, hugging each other closely and breathing in each other’s scent, all the while the distant sound of their family’s chatting was streaming vaguely into the barn from outside. It didn’t matter though; it was just them, Waverly and Wynonna Earp, in their own little bubble. Together.

  
“I can’t believe you came out of my vagina,” Wynonna said then, probably to ease the tension and emotion between them, but probably also because she just couldn’t believe it.

  
Waverly chuckled as she pulled away from her. She ran the back of her hand over her cheeks, wiping her tears. “I can,” she replied, placing a hand on Wynonna’s cheek and forcing them to look at each other, locking their gazes. “Of all things in this world, I can quite honestly say, that I am pleased to know that I came out of your vagina.”

  
Wynonna made a face. “Don’t say it like that, baby girl,” she placed a hand on top of Waverly’s against her cheek, “I’ve walked in on you with your head between Nicole’s thighs. Don’t spoil my picture of my innocent daughter, huh.”

  
Again, Waverly couldn’t hide her smile. She knew that it was messed up, and that her and Wynonna would probably never really see each other as mother and daughter, but they were sisters. Great sisters. And perhaps their sisterhood would only grow closer and stronger after this. Perhaps someday Wynonna would feel even more like a protecter, and mother, to Waverly than she already did. But then again, she’d felt like that since Waverly was a baby. “I love you so much, Wyn,” she whispered then, barely able to see Wynonna’s blue eyes through the blurriness of the tears in her own.

  
“Damn Waves,” Wynonna replied, not needing to say it back, because Waverly knew, she always knew. “Now it makes so much sense to me why Bobo said that you were special.”

  
“It does?” Waverly breathlessly whispered.

  
Nodding, Wynonna dropped their hands to her lap and let them stay there, their fingers intertwined as she glanced down at them. “You’ve time-traveled two times, and you’re the child of a man who has lived for more than 150 years and a woman with a magic curse. Of course you have depths, of course you’re special,” she paused, finally locking their eyes again, “Not that I needed him to tell me that.”

  
Licking her lips, Waverly replied. “I’ve thought about something too,” she revealed, glancing at the beautiful woman in front of her nervously, “I’ve thought about how I wanted to break the curse before you came back, you remember?”

  
“Yeah,” Wynonna hoarsely replied, “and you couldn’t find a reason why you shouldn’t be able to.”

  
Waverly continued, “But of course I couldn’t!” She said, shaking her head and running her fingers through Wynonna’s, “Not only was I not 27, but I’m also the _next generation_ ,” she paused, letting the words hang in the air for a few seconds, “I am an heir though, you see? I’m the first born of the air, and ‘Nonna, if you can’t do it, I’m gonna have to.”

  
Freezing, Wynonna seemed to finally realise that this was true. That Waverly actually was going to have to do the things that she was doing right now, if she didn’t finish the job. She squeezed Waverly’s hands tight. “I’m not gonna die and let you handle that shit, baby girl,” she promised, and there was a determination in her eyes, in her voice, on her _face_ , that Waverly had never seen before.

  
“Don’t worry,” Waverly promised her with hope, “we’re two heirs right? So you and me, we’re gonna kill those rev-heads together and end this curse once and for all. For your future kids. My future kids.”

  
“You’re gonna have kids?” Wynonna interrupted her then, eyes big and curious. They were glistening with something akin to happiness.

  
Waverly couldn’t help but let out a tiny giggle. “Of course I am,” she said, pressing a kiss to the back of Wynonna’s hand. “Nicole and I, we’re gonna have a bunch of kids. Some of them are gonna be redheads, some of them are gonna be brunettes. But we’ll have kids for sure.”

  
Wynonna’s face lit up in a goofy grin. “Haught’s gonna be the mother of my grandchildren I see?”

  
The youngest Earp just shrugged her shoulder with a little smile. “Guess so,” she whispered, blinking, “Or you can be the aunt, that’s up to you.”

  
“I think I’ll be an awesome grandma,” Wynonna replied in mock-offence, eyes going wide, and grin never leaving her face. “I’ll be the coolest grandma there ever was, dude.”

  
Waverly couldn’t help but think that she was absolutely right about that. Sure, maybe their family tree was going to be a tiny bit confusing for any future children, but it was never like it wasn’t going to be confusing either way. Their family had never been normal, and they never were going to be. They were Earps, and Earps would do their thing, Earping away. Earps had never been normal.

  
“Hey,” Waverly whispered then, as she remembered something else that Bobo had said to her; the words that had ultimately set off onto this entire journey. “Bobo said I wasn’t even an Earp, but… I am though?”

  
Quirking an eyebrow up at her, Wynonna shook her head. “Darling, you may technically be an Earp, because you’re, y’know, half of awesome me, but… you’re definitely a Holliday, I see that now.” She nodded her head, eyeing Waverly up and down. “I mean, by old-timey standards and shit, you’re definitely a Holliday, and damn, Doc _cannot_ stop talking about it.”

  
Bending her head down to hide her blush, Waverly felt her heart soar. Sure, she was an Earp, and she was always going to be an Earp – but she was definitely a Holliday too, and that sure as hell meant something to Doc. And it meant the world to her too, because many things could be said about Doc, and she’d called him many names – to his face and in her head – but she cared so deeply about him, and she was honoured to think that he was _happy_ to have her be his daughter. “He’s really happy I’m his?” She whispered, raising her head and meeting Wynonna’s eyes.

  
Wynonna huffed. “What? Are you kiddin’ me?” She questioned, staring in disbelief at her. “Waves, he’s like _ecstatic_.”

  
Smiling at Wynonna, Waverly hummed.

  
“Dude, you gotta talk to him,” Wynonna winked at her, before sighing heavily and motioning with her hands towards the closed door. They heard someone squeal loudly outside (it sounded a lot like Jeremy getting caught on fire), and she stood up, extending her hand to Waverly. “Wanna join the party?”

  
Grabbing her invitation, Waverly let herself be pulled off the bed and fell into Wynonna’s side, an arm around her midsection, and Wynonna’s arm around her shoulder. “Hey Wyn?” She breathed, as they pushed the door to the barn open and stepped outside.

  
Gus and Michelle were setting the makeshift table with plates and drinks, shaking their heads at the others. Dolls and Nicole were trying desperately to get out the fire that had caught onto Jeremy’s scarf, while he did nothing to help the situation; jumping around, squealing and disrupting their mission to safe him. Doc was getting steaks off the grill, scrunching his face in disgust at the sight of the grilled vegetables on tiny spears before getting them off the grill as well.

  
“Yeah?” Wynonna answered as they moved to join the others.

  
Nicole greeted them with a wide grin, finally having put out the fire. Jeremy fell to a lawn chair, breathing heavily as Dolls handed him a can of soda. Waverly felt her chest swell with so much love for all of these people in her life.

  
She grinned sheepishly up at Wynonna. “Don’t kill Nicole with your shovel talk, alright?”

  
A devilish smile appeared on Wynonna’s face. “You know I gotta do, what I gotta do, right baby girl?” She winked.

  
“You all good?” Dolls asked them, eyes moving between the two Earps as they joined everybody else at the grill.

  
Nodding, Waverly stepped closer to Doc, placing a kiss on his bearded cheek. “Need any help, Doc?” She asked him, eyes lingering on the sizzling food, before they turned back to look at him, and she found his eyes settled on her adoringly, and with a hand upon his cheek where she’d just kissed him.

  
“I do believe I have this grillin’ managed, baby girl,” he replied to her then, before his eyes focused back on the remaining steak, and Waverly turned to find Michelle watching them with a giant smile on her face.

  
Wynonna grabbed a beer from the table and popped it open, before turning to Nicole with a stern look in her eyes. Waverly bit her lip to keep herself from grinning when she realised what was about to happen. Wynonna stepped closer to Nicole, nudging her in the side with her elbow. “So eeh, Haught-stuff?”

  
Nicole grabbed a beer from the table as well, popping it open before offering it to Waverly, who gladly welcomed it and took her place by Nicole’s right side. The redhead grabbed a beer for herself as well. “Yeah?” She questioned with curiosity as she popped that one open as well and took a long gulp of it.

  
“I know you’ve like, been with Waverly for a while and shit,” Wynonna begun, forehead crinkling as Waverly buried her face in Nicole’s side. “But you also gotta realise that now I’m not just Waverly’s sister, so the roles have changed, yeah?”

  
A slightly scared look fell upon Nicole’s face then, undoubtedly when she realised what was about to happen to her.

  
Wynonna continued, undeterred. “And I _realise_ that you and Waverly have done the deed, frankly I’ve maybe seen a bit too much of that deed being done,” she added, as Nicole shifted uncomfortably next to Waverly and her cheeks started tainting a soft pink. “And I just gotta say, y’know, if you ever,” she raised a finger pointedly, eyes boring into Nicole’s, “ever hurt my baby girl, I’ma chase you all the way out of Purgatory so fast your Haught little ass can hardly take it.”

  
Nicole stared at Wynonna with wide eyes; her entire body was rigid and Waverly had to bite her lip to keep herself from cracking up. Wynonna was pulling off this shovel talk better than Waverly could have imagined, and Nicole was completely buying it. “Wynonna, I-” the redhead cut herself off, shifting on her feet and looking down at Waverly with sheer panic in her eyes. “I swear, I’m not gonna-”

  
The oldest Earp couldn’t play pretend any longer and she broke into a full-blown belly laugh, taking Nicole completely off guard. “I’m just shitting you, Haught-pants!” She cheered, clinking her bottle against Nicole’s and taking a sip of it.

  
Waverly giggled and pressed a kiss against Nicole’s cheek. “Wynonna loves you, baby,” she promised as she took a gulp of her own beer as well.

  
Nicole breathed a sigh of relief and laughed nervously as Wynonna turned to entertain Doc with a crass comment about his choice of beer, and Waverly snuggled into Nicole’s side again. The taller girl squeezed her tightly, wrapping an arm around her and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Are you sure it’s all good, Waves?” She wanted to know, just checking, just one more time, just to be sure.

  
As Waverly stared around at the people surrounding her; Gus and Michelle by the table, scooping salad onto their plates; Jeremy on the lawn chair, still inspecting his burnt scarf; Dolls passing vegetables around; and Doc and Wynonna arguing over by the grill – _especially_ Doc and Wynonna arguing over by the grill – Waverly knew that for the first time in a really long time, she really was sure that it was all good.

  
She nodded her head, gazing lovingly up at Nicole, only to find her staring back down at her, brown eyes shimmering. “Yeah,” she whispered, nodding her head a bit, “yeah, I’m really good. Finally.”

  
Nicole’s face cracked into a pink-lipped smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah. This was the last chapter! I hope you guys like the way I’ve decided to wrap everything up - with mentioning all of the relationships but with my focus on the most important one for this story: Wynonna and Waverly’s relationship.
> 
> I want to thank you immensely for all of the support and enthusiasm I’ve experienced for this story, it’s been quite fantastic to chat with you guys and read your comments. I’ve really appreciated everything.
> 
> Anyways. My new story is called ‘Definitely Something’ and it’s Wayhaught, so I’ll definitely be around for more fics and everything WE related. Take care!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, commenting and leaving kudos! You guys rock!
> 
> Hit me up if you wanna talk WE, fic or anything else, yeah? I’m on tumblr as: stefania-holubko, and twitter: @stefaniaholubko


End file.
